The AsterNym star registry
Copernicus
Copernicus: the golden star of Cancer
golden · Cancer · 55 Cnc
Copernicus is a golden star, warmer-toned than our Sun in the constellation Cancer, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 5.95 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Copernicus 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
Copernicus at a glance
- Constellation
- Cancer
- Other name
- 55 Cnc
- Catalogue number
- HIP 43587
- Distance
- ≈ 40 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 5.95 naked-eye
- Star type
- G8V
- Colour
- golden
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 08h 52m 36s
- Declination
- +28° 19′ 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 Copernicus?
Copernicus 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.
Copernicus moves noticeably against the background sky, about 54 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 Copernicus left in 1986, 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 sits at the edge of what an unaided eye can do, so finding it is a deliberate act rather than an accident.
What does the name Copernicus mean?
Copernicus had translated the Greek verses into Latin prose, and he published his version as Theophilacti scolastici Simocati epistolae morales, rurales et amatoriae interpretatione latina, which he dedicated to his uncle in gratitude for all the benefits he had received from him.
With this translation, Copernicus declared himself on the side of the humanists in the struggle over the question of whether Greek literature should be revived.
Name origin from English Wikipedia. AsterNym does not invent an etymology where none is recorded, and most stars in this catalogue have none: they carry modern names, or a catalogue designation and nothing older.
What could a Copernicus dedication represent?
Copernicus 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 Cancer in the sky.”
Where can you see Copernicus?
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 62°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 28°N. It stands highest at midnight in February, so February and March evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 5.95 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Copernicus belongs to Cancer.
What does Copernicus mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Copernicus, 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, Copernicus stands at 7° Leo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 28 July 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 Copernicus 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 Copernicus →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Copernicus dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Copernicus's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Copernicus keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Copernicus
- What does Copernicus mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Copernicus. Projected onto the zodiac, Copernicus stands at 7° Leo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 28 July.
- Is Copernicus the brightest star?
- Copernicus shines at magnitude 5.95 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Copernicus?
- Copernicus is approximately 40 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 40 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Copernicus?
- Copernicus is part of Cancer.
- Can everyone see Copernicus?
- 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 62°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 28°N. It stands highest at midnight in February, so February and March evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 5.95 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Copernicus an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Copernicus 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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