The AsterNym star registry
Chara
Chara: the golden star of Canes Venatici
golden · Canes Venatici · β CVn
Chara is a golden star, warmer-toned than our Sun in the constellation Canes Venatici, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.24 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Chara 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
Chara at a glance
- Constellation
- Canes Venatici
- Other name
- β CVn
- Catalogue number
- HIP 61317
- Distance
- ≈ 28 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.24 naked-eye
- Star type
- G0V
- Colour
- golden
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 12h 33m 45s
- Declination
- +41° 21′ 27″
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 Chara?
Chara is a yellow main-sequence star. Its surface runs about 5,500°C, near enough the Sun's own surface temperature. 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.
This is the Sun's class. Looking at a star like this is the closest you get to seeing what our own star looks like from outside, which is a stranger thought than it first sounds.
A star of this class gets around ten thousand million years, and the Sun is halfway through its own.
It is a main-sequence star, which despite the word dwarf simply means it is in the long stable middle of its life, fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun is doing now.
Chara moves noticeably against the background sky, about 76 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 you can see from Chara left in 1998, which puts it roughly a lifetime ago. Nobody has invented anything since then that the light knows about; it has simply been travelling.
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 Chara dedication represent?
Chara 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 Canes Venatici in the sky.”
Where can you see Chara?
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 49°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 41°N. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.24 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Chara belongs to Canes Venatici.
What does Chara mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Chara, 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, Chara stands at 17° Virgo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 6 September 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 Chara 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 Chara →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Chara dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Chara's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Chara keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Chara
- What does Chara mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Chara. Projected onto the zodiac, Chara stands at 17° Virgo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 6 September.
- Is Chara the brightest star?
- Chara shines at magnitude 4.24 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Chara?
- Chara is approximately 28 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 28 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Chara?
- Chara is part of Canes Venatici.
- Can everyone see Chara?
- 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 49°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 41°N. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.24 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Chara an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Chara 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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