Chechia, painted as a golden star

The AsterNym star registry

Chechia

Chechia: the golden star of Aquila

golden · Aquila · HD 192699

Chechia is a golden star, warmer-toned than our Sun in the constellation Aquila, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 6.44 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.

Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Chechia 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

Chechia at a glance

Constellation
Aquila
Other name
HD 192699
Catalogue number
HIP 99894
Distance
≈ 214 light-years
Brightness
Magnitude 6.44 naked-eye
Star type
G5
Colour
golden
Best seen from
Almost everywhere on Earth
Right ascension
20h 16m 06s
Declination
+04° 34′ 51″

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 Chechia?

Chechia is a yellow 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.

Chechia drifts about 6.5 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 Chechia tonight left in about 1812, some 214 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 Chechia dedication represent?

Chechia 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 Aquila in the sky.”

Dedicate Chechia →

Where can you see Chechia?

It sits 5° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 85°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 5°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.44 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.

Chechia belongs to Aquila.

What does Chechia mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Chechia, 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, Chechia stands at 7° Aquarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 26 January 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 Chechia 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 Chechia →

Real star · your message · a page to share

Your Chechia dedication includes

  • Your chosen dedication name
  • Your personal message
  • Chechia's real astronomical coordinates
  • A shareable dedication page
  • Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
  • An optional printable certificate and gift presentation

Chechia keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.

Frequently asked questions about Chechia

What does Chechia mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Chechia. Projected onto the zodiac, Chechia stands at 7° Aquarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 26 January.
Is Chechia the brightest star?
Chechia shines at magnitude 6.44 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
How far away is Chechia?
Chechia is approximately 214 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 214 years ago.
Which constellation contains Chechia?
Chechia is part of Aquila.
Can everyone see Chechia?
It sits 5° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 85°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 5°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.44 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Is dedicating Chechia an official astronomical renaming?
No. Chechia 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

The constellation Aquila, its stars sized by brightness and coloured by spectral type
Aquila, drawn from catalogued positions: brighter stars are larger, and the colours follow spectral type. North is up and east is left, the sky-chart convention, so it is mirrored against a map of the ground. The joining lines are one drawing convention among several; the IAU fixes the boundaries, not the figure.
AsterNym dedications are personal commemorative records: they are not recognized by the International Astronomical Union, do not change scientific catalogue names, and do not confer ownership of a star.