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A dedicated star
Arneb
yellow-white · Lepus · α Lep
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, Arneb becomes available again. Want it? Put the date in your calendar.
Arneb at a glance
- Constellation
- Lepus
- Other name
- α Lep
- Catalogue number
- HIP 25985
- Distance
- ≈ 2,219 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.58 naked-eye
- Star type
- F0Ib
- Colour
- yellow-white
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 05h 32m 44s
- Declination
- −17° 49′ 20″
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 Arneb?
Arneb is a yellow-white supergiant. 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 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.
Arneb 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
Arneb is about 2,219 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around -193. 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 Arneb mean?
The traditional name Arneb comes from the Arabic أرنب ’arnab 'hare' ('Lepus' is Latin for hare).
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 Arneb?
It sits 18° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 72°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 18°S. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.58 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Arneb belongs to Lepus, where it is the brightest star.
What does Arneb mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Arneb, 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, Arneb stands at 21° Gemini at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 11 June 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 Arneb
- What does Arneb mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Arneb. Projected onto the zodiac, Arneb stands at 21° Gemini, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 11 June.
- Is Arneb the brightest star?
- Arneb shines at magnitude 2.58 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Arneb?
- Arneb is approximately 2,219 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 2,219 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Arneb?
- Arneb is the brightest star in Lepus.
- Can everyone see Arneb?
- It sits 18° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 72°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 18°S. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.58 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Arneb an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Arneb 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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