A dedicated star
Bellatrix
blue · Orion · γ Ori
Dedicated to
Samantha Collins
by Michael Reynolds · August 14, 2026
“Samantha, in honor of your graduation and everything you did to reach this moment. May Bellatrix always remind you to dream boldly and keep reaching for the stars.”
This dedication
- Dedicated to
- Samantha Collins
- Dedicated by
- Michael Reynolds
- Recorded
- August 14, 2026
- Held until
- August 14, 2027
When this dedication ends, Bellatrix becomes available again. Want it? Put the date in your calendar.
Bellatrix at a glance
- Constellation
- Orion
- Other name
- γ Ori
- Catalogue number
- HIP 25336
- Distance
- ≈ 250 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 1.64 naked-eye
- Star type
- B2 III
- Colour
- blue
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 05h 25m 08s
- Declination
- +06° 20′ 59″
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 Bellatrix?
Bellatrix is a blue-white giant. 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.
Its colour is not the whole story. A blue-white star still in the steady part of its life would burn for tens 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.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Bellatrix tonight left in about 1776, some 250 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 also one of the brighter stars in the sky, which is why it carries a proper name at all rather than a catalogue number.
What does the name Bellatrix mean?
The traditional name Bellatrix is from the Latin bellātrix "female warrior".
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.
Where can you see Bellatrix?
It sits 6° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 84°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 6°N. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.64 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Bellatrix belongs to Orion.
What does Bellatrix mean in astrology?
The "female warrior", Orion's left shoulder. Nature of Mars and Mercury: strategy over force: quick, exact courage, and honours won through decisiveness.
Projected onto the zodiac the way fixed-star astrology reads any star, Bellatrix stands at 20° Gemini at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 10 June 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.
Frequently asked questions about Bellatrix
- What does Bellatrix mean in astrology?
- The "female warrior", Orion's left shoulder. Nature of Mars and Mercury: strategy over force: quick, exact courage, and honours won through decisiveness. Projected onto the zodiac, Bellatrix stands at 20° Gemini, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 10 June.
- Is Bellatrix the brightest star?
- Bellatrix shines at magnitude 1.64 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Bellatrix?
- Bellatrix is approximately 250 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 250 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Bellatrix?
- Bellatrix is part of Orion.
- Can everyone see Bellatrix?
- It sits 6° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 84°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 6°N. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.64 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Bellatrix an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Bellatrix 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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