Preview. This is a sample dedication, shown so you can see what a dedicated star page looks like.
A dedicated star
Aludra
blue · Canis Major · η CMa
Dedicated to
Maya
by Her sister, June · August 12, 2026
“You were born on the brightest night of my life. Whenever you feel small, remember: there is a star that has carried your name since before you could read it, and it is still up there, still burning, still yours.”
This dedication
- Dedicated to
- Maya
- Dedicated by
- Her sister, June
- Recorded
- August 12, 2026
- Held until
- August 12, 2027
When this dedication ends, Aludra becomes available again. Want it? Put the date in your calendar.
Aludra at a glance
- Constellation
- Canis Major
- Other name
- η CMa
- Catalogue number
- HIP 35904
- Distance
- ≈ 2,000 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.45 naked-eye
- Star type
- B5 Ia
- Colour
- blue
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 07h 24m 06s
- Declination
- −29° 18′ 11″
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 Aludra?
Aludra is a blue-white supergiant. Its surface runs somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000°C, which is what gives it a blue-white cast. 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.
Its colour is not the whole story. A blue-white star still in the steady part of its life would burn for tens of millions of years. This one is past that stage, and it is cool at the surface because it has swollen outward, not because it was born this way.
It is a supergiant, which means it has left the stable part of its life and swollen enormously. Put it where the Sun is and its surface would swallow the inner planets. Stars this size do not fade quietly; this one will end as a supernova, and on a human timescale that could be tonight or in a million years.
The light you are looking at is old
Aludra is about 2,000 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 26. You are not looking at the star as it is. You are looking at the star as it was, and there is no way to see it any other way.
That delay is the part people find hardest and like most. A star is the one thing you can give someone that was already old before either of you was born and will outlast anything else you could have chosen.
It is comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.
What does the name Aludra mean?
The traditional name Aludra originates from the Arabic: العذراء al-adhraa, 'the virgin'.
Name origin from English Wikipedia. AsterNym does not invent an etymology where none is recorded, and most stars in this catalogue have none: they carry modern names, or a catalogue designation and nothing older.
Where can you see Aludra?
It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 61°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 29°S. It stands highest at midnight in January, so January and February evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.45 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Aludra belongs to Canis Major.
What does Aludra mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Aludra, and we don’t invent lore where none exists. What astrology can still read is the star’s real position, below.
Projected onto the zodiac the way fixed-star astrology reads any star, Aludra stands at 29° Cancer at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 19 July 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 Aludra
- What does Aludra mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Aludra. Projected onto the zodiac, Aludra stands at 29° Cancer, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 19 July.
- Is Aludra the brightest star?
- Aludra shines at magnitude 2.45 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Aludra?
- Aludra is approximately 2,000 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 2,000 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Aludra?
- Aludra is part of Canis Major.
- Can everyone see Aludra?
- It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 61°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 29°S. It stands highest at midnight in January, so January and February evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.45 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Aludra an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Aludra 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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