A dedicated star
Altair
white · Aquila · α Aql
Dedicated to
Jordan Blake
by Marcus Reed · March 4, 2026
“Some friends become family. Wherever life takes us, Altair will remind me of the adventures and laughter we shared.”
This dedication
- Dedicated to
- Jordan Blake
- Dedicated by
- Marcus Reed
- Recorded
- March 4, 2026
- Held until
- March 4, 2027
When this dedication ends, Altair becomes available again. Want it? Put the date in your calendar.
Altair at a glance
- Constellation
- Aquila
- Other name
- α Aql
- Catalogue number
- HIP 97649
- Distance
- ≈ 16.7 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 0.77 naked-eye
- Star type
- A7 V
- Colour
- white
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 19h 50m 47s
- Declination
- +08° 52′ 06″
J2000 catalogue coordinates that can be independently cross-checked against astronomical databases. A planetarium app showing coordinates of date will differ slightly, because proper motion and precession move a star’s apparent position over time.
What kind of star is Altair?
Altair is a white main-sequence star. Its surface runs around 7,500 to 10,000°C, hot enough to look white or blue-white to the eye. Colour in a star is a temperature reading rather than a decoration: the hot ones are blue and the cool ones red, the opposite way round to a kitchen tap.
These are the classic bright white stars. Sirius and Vega are both this kind, and they are the reason people describe stars as white when most of the galaxy's stars are actually red and too faint to see.
A star of this class gets roughly a thousand million years, a tenth of what the Sun gets.
It is a main-sequence star, which despite the word dwarf simply means it is in the long stable middle of its life, fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun is doing now.
The light you are looking at is old
Light travels fast but not instantly, so what reaches your eye from Altair tonight set out in 2009. That is inside a single lifetime. Someone alive now was already alive when this particular light left.
Distance is also the honest limit of what a star can be to you. It is a real object, unimaginably large, and it does not know you exist. What it can be is a fixed point you agreed to attach a meaning to, which is the oldest use people have ever had for the sky.
It is also one of the brighter stars in the sky, which is why it carries a proper name at all rather than a catalogue number.
What does the name Altair mean?
Altair descends from the Arabic al-nasr al-ṭā’ir, “the flying eagle.” In the Qixi and Tanabata festivals, he is the Cowherd whose reunion with the Weaver Girl is celebrated every summer.
Where can you see Altair?
It sits 9° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 81°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 9°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 0.77 it is bright enough to hold its own over city lights.
Altair belongs to Aquila, where it is the brightest star.
What does Altair mean in astrology?
The flying eagle. Nature of Mars and Jupiter: boldness, sudden elevation, and the confidence to strike, with the eagle's appetite for risk attached.
Projected onto the zodiac the way fixed-star astrology reads any star, Altair stands at 1° Aquarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 20 January in the years around 2000. Fixed-star longitude shifts slowly against the tropical zodiac because of precession, about one degree every seventy-two years, so a natal conjunction must be calculated for the birth year rather than read off this J2000 value or a calendar date.
Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions. The position and dates are computed.
Frequently asked questions about Altair
- What does Altair mean in astrology?
- The flying eagle. Nature of Mars and Jupiter: boldness, sudden elevation, and the confidence to strike, with the eagle's appetite for risk attached. Projected onto the zodiac, Altair stands at 1° Aquarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 20 January.
- Is Altair the brightest star?
- Altair shines at magnitude 0.77 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Altair?
- Altair is approximately 16.7 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 17 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Altair?
- Altair is the brightest star in Aquila.
- Can everyone see Altair?
- It sits 9° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 81°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 9°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 0.77 it is bright enough to hold its own over city lights.
- Is dedicating Altair an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Altair keeps its internationally recognised astronomical name. An AsterNym dedication records your personal name and message in the AsterNym registry without changing the star's scientific identity.
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