The AsterNym star registry
Citadelle
Citadelle: the warm orange star of Pisces
warm orange · Pisces · HD 1502
Citadelle is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Pisces, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 8.36 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Citadelle 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
Citadelle at a glance
- Constellation
- Pisces
- Other name
- HD 1502
- Catalogue number
- HIP 1547
- Distance
- ≈ 519 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 8.36 telescope
- Star type
- K0
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 00h 19m 17s
- Declination
- +14° 03′ 17″
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 Citadelle?
Citadelle is an orange star. Its surface runs roughly 4,000 to 5,000°C, cool enough that the light carries a visible orange. 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.
Nothing of this kind has ever died of old age, anywhere, because the universe is not old enough yet. Every one that has ever formed is still burning.
A star of this class gets twenty to fifty thousand million years, far longer than the universe has yet existed.
Citadelle drifts about 7.7 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
Citadelle is about 519 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1507. 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 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 Citadelle dedication represent?
Citadelle 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 Pisces in the sky.”
Where can you see Citadelle?
It sits 14° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 76°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 14°N. It stands highest at midnight in September, so September and October evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 8.36 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Citadelle belongs to Pisces.
What does Citadelle mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Citadelle, 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, Citadelle stands at 10° Aries at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 30 March 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 Citadelle 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 Citadelle →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Citadelle dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Citadelle's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Citadelle keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Citadelle
- What does Citadelle mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Citadelle. Projected onto the zodiac, Citadelle stands at 10° Aries, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 30 March.
- Is Citadelle the brightest star?
- Citadelle shines at magnitude 8.36 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Citadelle?
- Citadelle is approximately 519 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 519 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Citadelle?
- Citadelle is part of Pisces.
- Can everyone see Citadelle?
- It sits 14° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 76°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 14°N. It stands highest at midnight in September, so September and October evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 8.36 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Citadelle an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Citadelle 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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