The AsterNym star registry
Brachium
Brachium: the deep red star of Libra
deep red · Libra · σ Lib
Brachium is a deep red star in the constellation Libra, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.25 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Brachium 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
Brachium at a glance
- Constellation
- Libra
- Other name
- σ Lib
- Catalogue number
- HIP 73714
- Distance
- ≈ 288 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 3.25 naked-eye
- Star type
- M3/M4III
- Colour
- deep red
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 15h 04m 04s
- Declination
- −25° 16′ 55″
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 Brachium?
Brachium is a red giant. 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 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.
Brachium drifts about 8.5 arcseconds a century against the stars behind it. Slow by any human measure, and still enough that the sky your distant descendants see will not be the one in your photographs.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Brachium tonight left in about 1738, some 288 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 Brachium dedication represent?
Brachium 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 Libra in the sky.”
Where can you see Brachium?
It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 65°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 25°S. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.25 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Brachium belongs to Libra.
What does Brachium mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Brachium, 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, Brachium stands at 20° Scorpio at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 9 November 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 Brachium 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 Brachium →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Brachium dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Brachium's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Brachium keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Brachium
- What does Brachium mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Brachium. Projected onto the zodiac, Brachium stands at 20° Scorpio, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 9 November.
- Is Brachium the brightest star?
- Brachium shines at magnitude 3.25 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Brachium?
- Brachium is approximately 288 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 288 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Brachium?
- Brachium is part of Libra.
- Can everyone see Brachium?
- It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 65°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 25°S. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.25 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Brachium an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Brachium 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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