The AsterNym star registry
Baekdu
Baekdu: the warm orange star of Ursa Minor
warm orange · Ursa Minor · 8 UMi
Baekdu is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Ursa Minor, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 6.83 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Baekdu 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
Baekdu at a glance
- Constellation
- Ursa Minor
- Other name
- 8 UMi
- Catalogue number
- HIP 73136
- Distance
- ≈ 522 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 6.83 telescope
- Star type
- K0
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The far northern sky
- Right ascension
- 14h 56m 48s
- Declination
- +74° 54′ 03″
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 Baekdu?
Baekdu is an orange star. 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.
Nothing of this kind has ever died of old age, anywhere, because the universe is not old enough yet. Every one that has ever formed is still burning.
A star of this class gets twenty to fifty thousand million years, far longer than the universe has yet existed.
Baekdu 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
Baekdu is about 522 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1504. 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 sits at the edge of what an unaided eye can do, so finding it is a deliberate act rather than an accident.
What does the name Baekdu mean?
The current Chinese name, Chángbáishān (t=長白山), was first used in the Liao dynasty (916–1125) of the Khitans and then the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) of the Jurchens.
An alternative Chinese name, Báitóushān, is the transliteration of Baekdusan.
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 Baekdu dedication represent?
Baekdu 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 Ursa Minor in the sky.”
Where can you see Baekdu?
It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 15°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 75°N. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.83 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Baekdu belongs to Ursa Minor.
What does Baekdu mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Baekdu, 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, Baekdu stands at 10° Leo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 31 July 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 Baekdu 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 Baekdu →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Baekdu dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Baekdu's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Baekdu keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Baekdu
- What does Baekdu mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Baekdu. Projected onto the zodiac, Baekdu stands at 10° Leo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 31 July.
- Is Baekdu the brightest star?
- Baekdu shines at magnitude 6.83 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Baekdu?
- Baekdu is approximately 522 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 522 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Baekdu?
- Baekdu is part of Ursa Minor.
- Can everyone see Baekdu?
- It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 15°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 75°N. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.83 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Baekdu an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Baekdu 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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