The AsterNym star registry
Ascella
Ascella: the white star of Sagittarius
white · Sagittarius · ζ Sgr
Ascella is a white star, burning hotter than our own Sun in the constellation Sagittarius, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.60 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Ascella 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
Ascella at a glance
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Other name
- ζ Sgr
- Catalogue number
- HIP 93506
- Distance
- ≈ 88 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.60 naked-eye
- Star type
- A3IV
- Colour
- white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 19h 02m 37s
- Declination
- −29° 52′ 48″
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 Ascella?
Ascella is a white subgiant. Its surface runs around 7,500 to 10,000°C, hot enough to look white or blue-white to the eye. 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.
These are the classic bright white stars. Sirius and Vega are both this kind, and they are the reason people describe stars as white when most of the galaxy's stars are actually red and too faint to see.
A star of this class gets roughly a thousand million years, a tenth of what the Sun gets.
It is a subgiant, caught in the short crossing between an ordinary life and a giant one. Its core has run out of hydrogen but its outer layers have not finished expanding, and astronomically this stage passes quickly.
Ascella 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
The light you can see from Ascella left in 1938, 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 Ascella mean?
It bore the traditional name Ascella, from a Late Latin word meaning armpit.
In the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi al Mouakket, this star was designated Thalath al Sadirah, which was translated into Latin as Tertia τού al Sadirah, meaning third returning ostrich.
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 Ascella dedication represent?
Ascella 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 Ascella?
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 60°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 30°S. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.60 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Ascella belongs to Sagittarius.
What does Ascella mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Ascella, 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, Ascella stands at 13° Capricorn at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 2 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 Ascella 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 Ascella →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Ascella dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Ascella's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Ascella keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Ascella
- What does Ascella mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Ascella. Projected onto the zodiac, Ascella stands at 13° Capricorn, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 2 January.
- Is Ascella the brightest star?
- Ascella shines at magnitude 2.60 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Ascella?
- Ascella is approximately 88 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 88 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Ascella?
- Ascella is part of Sagittarius.
- Can everyone see Ascella?
- 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 60°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 30°S. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.60 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Ascella an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Ascella 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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