The AsterNym star registry
Arkab Posterior
Arkab Posterior: the yellow-white star of Sagittarius
yellow-white · Sagittarius · β2 Sgr
Arkab Posterior is a yellow-white star, a near cousin of our own Sun's colour in the constellation Sagittarius, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.27 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Arkab Posterior 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
Arkab Posterior at a glance
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Other name
- β2 Sgr
- Catalogue number
- HIP 95294
- Distance
- ≈ 134 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.27 naked-eye
- Star type
- F2III
- Colour
- yellow-white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 19h 23m 13s
- Declination
- −44° 47′ 59″
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 Arkab Posterior?
Arkab Posterior is a yellow-white giant. Its surface runs about 6,000 to 7,500°C, a shade hotter than the Sun. 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 yellow-white star still in the steady part of its life would burn for two to four thousand million 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.
Arkab Posterior drifts about 10.7 arcseconds a century against the stars behind it. Slow by any human measure, and still enough that the sky your distant descendants see will not be the one in your photographs.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Arkab Posterior tonight left in about 1892, some 134 years ago. Everything that has happened since, every person you have heard of from the last few centuries, happened while it was in transit.
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 could a Arkab Posterior dedication represent?
Arkab Posterior 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 Sagittarius in the sky.”
Where can you see Arkab Posterior?
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 45°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 45°S. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.27 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Arkab Posterior belongs to Sagittarius.
What does Arkab Posterior mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Arkab Posterior, 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, Arkab Posterior stands at 15° Capricorn at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 4 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.
Dedicate Arkab Posterior 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 Arkab Posterior →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Arkab Posterior dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Arkab Posterior's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Arkab Posterior keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Arkab Posterior
- What does Arkab Posterior mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Arkab Posterior. Projected onto the zodiac, Arkab Posterior stands at 15° Capricorn, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 4 January.
- Is Arkab Posterior the brightest star?
- Arkab Posterior shines at magnitude 4.27 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Arkab Posterior?
- Arkab Posterior is approximately 134 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 134 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Arkab Posterior?
- Arkab Posterior is part of Sagittarius.
- Can everyone see Arkab Posterior?
- 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 45°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 45°S. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.27 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Arkab Posterior an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Arkab Posterior 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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