The AsterNym star registry
Alula Australis
Alula Australis: the golden star of Ursa Major
golden · Ursa Major · ξ UMa
Alula Australis is a golden star, warmer-toned than our Sun in the constellation Ursa Major, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.41 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Alula Australis is not. Some IAU-recognised names are ancient; others were adopted by the IAU only recently. Either way, the star already has a scientific identity, and a dedication attaches a human story to it.
Real star · Personal dedication · Recorded in the AsterNym registry
See what a dedicated page looks like: preview
Alula Australis at a glance
- Constellation
- Ursa Major
- Other name
- ξ UMa
- Catalogue number
- HIP 55203
- Distance
- ≈ 29 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.41 naked-eye
- Star type
- G0V
- Colour
- golden
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 11h 18m 11s
- Declination
- +31° 31′ 45″
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 Alula Australis?
Alula Australis is a yellow main-sequence star. Its surface runs about 5,500°C, near enough the Sun's own surface temperature. 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.
This is the Sun's class. Looking at a star like this is the closest you get to seeing what our own star looks like from outside, which is a stranger thought than it first sounds.
A star of this class gets around ten thousand million years, and the Sun is halfway through its own.
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.
Alula Australis moves noticeably against the background sky, about 73 arcseconds a century. The constellation it belongs to will not have quite this shape in ten thousand years.
The light you are looking at is old
The light you can see from Alula Australis left in 1997, which puts it roughly a lifetime ago. Nobody has invented anything since then that the light knows about; it has simply been travelling.
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 Alula Australis mean?
Alula (shared with Nu Ursae Majoris) comes from the Arabic phrase 'the First Spring' and Australis is Latin for 'southern'.
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.
What could a Alula Australis dedication represent?
Alula Australis is especially meaningful for someone who:
- · Deserves something older than any gift shop
- · Marks a beginning, an anniversary or a promise
- · Is remembered every time you look up
- · Has a light you want recorded somewhere permanent
Dedication idea
“For the one I think of when I find Ursa Major in the sky.”
Where can you see Alula Australis?
It is easy to see from most of the Northern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower southern latitudes, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 58°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 32°N. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.41 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Alula Australis belongs to Ursa Major.
What does Alula Australis mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Alula Australis, 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, Alula Australis stands at 7° Virgo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 27 August 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.
Dedicate Alula Australis to someone who matters
A flower fades. A card is eventually put away. A star gives your message a place in the sky.
from$29.95a year
Dedicate Alula Australis →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Alula Australis dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Alula Australis's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Alula Australis keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Alula Australis
- What does Alula Australis mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Alula Australis. Projected onto the zodiac, Alula Australis stands at 7° Virgo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 27 August.
- Is Alula Australis the brightest star?
- Alula Australis shines at magnitude 4.41 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Alula Australis?
- Alula Australis is approximately 29 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 29 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Alula Australis?
- Alula Australis is part of Ursa Major.
- Can everyone see Alula Australis?
- It is easy to see from most of the Northern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower southern latitudes, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 58°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 32°N. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.41 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Alula Australis an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Alula Australis 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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