The AsterNym star registry
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse: the red giant living brilliantly on borrowed time
deep red · Orion · α Ori · ninth-brightest star in the night sky
Betelgeuse is Orion's burning shoulder, a red supergiant so large that, placed where our Sun is, it would swallow the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
It is also near the end of its story: sometime in the next hundred thousand years it will go supernova and briefly outshine the full Moon. A star that lives this vividly makes a dedication for someone who does the same.
Real star · Personal dedication · Recorded in the AsterNym registry
See what a dedicated page looks like: preview
Betelgeuse at a glance
- Constellation
- Orion
- Other name
- α Ori
- Catalogue number
- HIP 27989
- Distance
- ≈ 548 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 0.42 naked-eye
- Rank
- ninth-brightest star in the night sky
- Star type
- M1-2 Ia-ab
- Colour
- deep red
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 05h 55m 10s
- Declination
- +07° 24′ 26″
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 Betelgeuse?
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant. Its surface runs under 4,000°C, which is cool as stars go and why the colour is unmistakably red. 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 red star still in the steady part of its life would burn for longer than the universe has yet existed. 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 supergiant, which means it has left the stable part of its life and swollen enormously. Put it where the Sun is and its surface would swallow the inner planets. Stars this size do not fade quietly; this one will end as a supernova, and on a human timescale that could be tonight or in a million years.
The light you are looking at is old
Betelgeuse is about 548 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1478. 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 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.
Why is Betelgeuse special?
Betelgeuse visibly changes: it brightens and dims as the whole star pulses. In 2019 it faded so dramatically that the world briefly wondered if the supernova had come. It had sneezed out a cloud of its own dust instead.
When it does go, observers on Earth will see a new light in the sky bright enough to read by. Every dedication until then borrows a little of that anticipation.
What does the name Betelgeuse mean?
Betelgeuse descends from an Arabic phrase usually read as yad al-jauzā’, “the hand of Orion.” Centuries of copying between languages bent it into the name we use now.
What could a Betelgeuse dedication represent?
Betelgeuse is especially meaningful for someone who:
- · Lives more vividly than anyone around them
- · Refuses to be small
- · Is going through a transformation of their own
- · Deserves to go out, someday, far away, in glory
Dedication idea
“For the one who burns brighter than caution allows.”
Where can you see Betelgeuse?
It sits 7° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 83°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 7°N. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 0.42 it is bright enough to hold its own over city lights.
Betelgeuse belongs to Orion.
What does Betelgeuse mean in astrology?
The red shoulder of Orion. The tradition gives it the nature of Mars and Mercury and reads it as martial luck: success in contest and visible achievement.
Projected onto the zodiac the way fixed-star astrology reads any star, Betelgeuse stands at 28° Gemini at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 18 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.
Dedicate Betelgeuse 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 Betelgeuse →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Betelgeuse dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Betelgeuse's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Betelgeuse keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Betelgeuse
- What does Betelgeuse mean in astrology?
- The red shoulder of Orion. The tradition gives it the nature of Mars and Mercury and reads it as martial luck: success in contest and visible achievement. Projected onto the zodiac, Betelgeuse stands at 28° Gemini, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 18 June.
- Is Betelgeuse the brightest star?
- Betelgeuse is the ninth-brightest star in the night sky as seen from Earth. Sirius is the brightest.
- How far away is Betelgeuse?
- Betelgeuse is approximately 548 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 548 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Betelgeuse?
- Betelgeuse is part of Orion.
- Can everyone see Betelgeuse?
- It sits 7° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 83°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 7°N. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 0.42 it is bright enough to hold its own over city lights.
- Is dedicating Betelgeuse an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Betelgeuse 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
