The AsterNym star registry
Aniara
Aniara: the warm orange star of Ursa Major
warm orange · Ursa Major · HD 102956
Aniara is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Ursa Major, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 7.86 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Aniara 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
Aniara at a glance
- Constellation
- Ursa Major
- Other name
- HD 102956
- Catalogue number
- HIP 57820
- Distance
- ≈ 412 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 7.86 telescope
- Star type
- K0III
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 11h 51m 23s
- Declination
- +57° 38′ 27″
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 Aniara?
Aniara is an orange giant. Its surface runs roughly 4,000 to 5,000°C, cool enough that the light carries a visible orange. 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. An orange star still in the steady part of its life would burn for tens of thousands 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 giant, which is what a star becomes when it exhausts the hydrogen in its core. It has swollen outward and cooled at the surface, and it is now brighter than it ever was as a young star. The Sun will do this too, in about five thousand million years.
Aniara barely moves against the background sky, which is mostly a statement about how far away it is. For every practical purpose, including yours, it is fixed.
The light you are looking at is old
Aniara is about 412 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1614. 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 sits at the edge of what an unaided eye can do, so finding it is a deliberate act rather than an accident.
What does the name Aniara mean?
A preface to a 2005 Italian edition claims that the title comes from ancient Greek ἀνιαρός, "sad, despairing", plus special resonances that the sound "a" had for Martinson.
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 Aniara dedication represent?
Aniara 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 Aniara?
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 32°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 58°N. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 7.86 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Aniara belongs to Ursa Major.
What does Aniara mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Aniara, 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, Aniara stands at 26° Leo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 16 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 Aniara 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 Aniara →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Aniara dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Aniara's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Aniara keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Aniara
- What does Aniara mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Aniara. Projected onto the zodiac, Aniara stands at 26° Leo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 16 August.
- Is Aniara the brightest star?
- Aniara shines at magnitude 7.86 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Aniara?
- Aniara is approximately 412 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 412 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Aniara?
- Aniara is part of Ursa Major.
- Can everyone see Aniara?
- 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 32°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 58°N. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 7.86 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Aniara an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Aniara 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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