Asuusiha, painted as a blue-white star

The AsterNym star registry

Asuusiha

Asuusiha: the blue-white star of Hercules

blue-white · Hercules · τ Her

Asuusiha is a blue-white star, the colour of the hottest, youngest suns in the constellation Hercules, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.87 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.

Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Asuusiha 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

Asuusiha at a glance

Constellation
Hercules
Other name
τ Her
Catalogue number
HIP 79992
Distance
≈ 307 light-years
Brightness
Magnitude 3.87 naked-eye
Star type
B5IV
Colour
blue-white
Best seen from
The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
Right ascension
16h 19m 44s
Declination
+46° 18′ 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 Asuusiha?

Asuusiha is a blue-white subgiant. Its surface runs somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000°C, which is what gives it a blue-white cast. 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.

It is spending its fuel at a rate the Sun never will. Most of the bright stars in familiar constellations are this kind, which is why the night sky looks younger and hotter than the average star actually is.

A star of this class gets tens of millions of years, against the Sun's ten thousand million.

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.

Asuusiha drifts about 4.1 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 Asuusiha tonight left in about 1719, some 307 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 Asuusiha dedication represent?

Asuusiha 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 Hercules in the sky.”

Dedicate Asuusiha →

Where can you see Asuusiha?

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 44°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 46°N. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.87 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.

Asuusiha belongs to Hercules.

What does Asuusiha mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Asuusiha, 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, Asuusiha stands at 14° Scorpio at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 3 November 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 Asuusiha to someone who matters

A flower fades. A card is eventually put away. A star gives your message a place in the sky.

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Dedicate Asuusiha →

Real star · your message · a page to share

Your Asuusiha dedication includes

  • Your chosen dedication name
  • Your personal message
  • Asuusiha's real astronomical coordinates
  • A shareable dedication page
  • Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
  • An optional printable certificate and gift presentation

Asuusiha keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.

Frequently asked questions about Asuusiha

What does Asuusiha mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Asuusiha. Projected onto the zodiac, Asuusiha stands at 14° Scorpio, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 3 November.
Is Asuusiha the brightest star?
Asuusiha shines at magnitude 3.87 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
How far away is Asuusiha?
Asuusiha is approximately 307 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 307 years ago.
Which constellation contains Asuusiha?
Asuusiha is part of Hercules.
Can everyone see Asuusiha?
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 44°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 46°N. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.87 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Is dedicating Asuusiha an official astronomical renaming?
No. Asuusiha 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.

Explore nearby stars

The constellation Hercules, its stars sized by brightness and coloured by spectral type
Hercules, drawn from catalogued positions: brighter stars are larger, and the colours follow spectral type. North is up and east is left, the sky-chart convention, so it is mirrored against a map of the ground. The joining lines are one drawing convention among several; the IAU fixes the boundaries, not the figure.
AsterNym dedications are personal commemorative records: they are not recognized by the International Astronomical Union, do not change scientific catalogue names, and do not confer ownership of a star.