The AsterNym star registry
Bélénos
Bélénos: the yellow-white star of Pisces
yellow-white · Pisces · HD 8574
Bélénos is a yellow-white star, a near cousin of our own Sun's colour in the constellation Pisces, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 7.12 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Bélénos 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
Bélénos at a glance
- Constellation
- Pisces
- Other name
- HD 8574
- Catalogue number
- HIP 6643
- Distance
- ≈ 145 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 7.12 telescope
- Star type
- F8
- Colour
- yellow-white
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 01h 25m 13s
- Declination
- +28° 34′ 00″
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 Bélénos?
Bélénos is a yellow-white star. 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.
A little brighter and a little shorter-lived than the Sun, and near the edge of the range where a planet could plausibly hold liquid water for long enough to matter.
A star of this class gets two to four thousand million years.
Bélénos moves noticeably against the background sky, about 30 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 Bélénos tonight left in about 1881, some 145 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 sits at the edge of what an unaided eye can do, so finding it is a deliberate act rather than an accident.
What could a Bélénos dedication represent?
Bélénos 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 Pisces in the sky.”
Where can you see Bélénos?
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 61°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 29°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 7.12 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Bélénos belongs to Pisces.
What does Bélénos mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Bélénos, 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, Bélénos stands at 0° Taurus at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 20 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 Bélénos 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 Bélénos →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Bélénos dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Bélénos's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Bélénos keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Bélénos
- What does Bélénos mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Bélénos. Projected onto the zodiac, Bélénos stands at 0° Taurus, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 20 April.
- Is Bélénos the brightest star?
- Bélénos shines at magnitude 7.12 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Bélénos?
- Bélénos is approximately 145 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 145 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Bélénos?
- Bélénos is part of Pisces.
- Can everyone see Bélénos?
- 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 61°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 29°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 7.12 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Bélénos an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Bélénos 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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