The AsterNym star registry
Custos
Custos: the deep red star of Camelopardalis
deep red · Camelopardalis · BE Cam
Custos is a deep red star in the constellation Camelopardalis, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.48 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Custos 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
Custos at a glance
- Constellation
- Camelopardalis
- Other name
- BE Cam
- Catalogue number
- HIP 17884
- Distance
- ≈ 796 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.48 naked-eye
- Star type
- M1III
- Colour
- deep red
- Best seen from
- The far northern sky
- Right ascension
- 03h 49m 31s
- Declination
- +65° 31′ 34″
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 Custos?
Custos 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.
Custos barely moves against the background sky, which is mostly a statement about how far away it is. For every practical purpose, including yours, it is fixed.
The light you are looking at is old
Custos is about 796 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1230. 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 is comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.
What could a Custos dedication represent?
Custos 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 Camelopardalis in the sky.”
Where can you see Custos?
It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 24°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 66°N. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.48 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Custos belongs to Camelopardalis, where it is the brightest star.
What does Custos mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Custos, 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, Custos stands at 11° Gemini at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 1 June 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 Custos 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 Custos →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Custos dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Custos's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Custos keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Custos
- What does Custos mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Custos. Projected onto the zodiac, Custos stands at 11° Gemini, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 1 June.
- Is Custos the brightest star?
- Custos shines at magnitude 4.48 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Custos?
- Custos is approximately 796 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 796 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Custos?
- Custos is the brightest star in Camelopardalis.
- Can everyone see Custos?
- It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 24°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 66°N. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.48 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Custos an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Custos 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
