The AsterNym star registry
Azha
Azha: the warm orange star of Eridanus
warm orange · Eridanus · η Eri
Azha is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Eridanus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.89 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Azha 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
Azha at a glance
- Constellation
- Eridanus
- Other name
- η Eri
- Catalogue number
- HIP 13701
- Distance
- ≈ 137 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 3.89 naked-eye
- Star type
- K1III-IV
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 02h 56m 26s
- Declination
- −08° 53′ 53″
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 Azha?
Azha 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.
Azha moves noticeably against the background sky, about 23 arcseconds a century. The constellation it belongs to will not have quite this shape in ten thousand years.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Azha tonight left in about 1889, some 137 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 Azha dedication represent?
Azha 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 Eridanus in the sky.”
Where can you see Azha?
It sits 9° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 81°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 9°S. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.89 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Azha belongs to Eridanus.
What does Azha mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Azha, 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, Azha stands at 8° Taurus at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 28 April 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 Azha 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 Azha →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Azha dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Azha's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Azha keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Azha
- What does Azha mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Azha. Projected onto the zodiac, Azha stands at 8° Taurus, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 28 April.
- Is Azha the brightest star?
- Azha shines at magnitude 3.89 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Azha?
- Azha is approximately 137 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 137 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Azha?
- Azha is part of Eridanus.
- Can everyone see Azha?
- It sits 9° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 81°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 9°S. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.89 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Azha an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Azha 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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