The AsterNym star registry
Dalim
Dalim: the yellow-white star of Fornax
yellow-white · Fornax · α For
Dalim is a yellow-white star, a near cousin of our own Sun's colour in the constellation Fornax, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.86 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Dalim 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
Dalim at a glance
- Constellation
- Fornax
- Other name
- α For
- Catalogue number
- HIP 14879
- Distance
- ≈ 46 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 3.86 naked-eye
- Star type
- F8V
- Colour
- yellow-white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 03h 12m 05s
- Declination
- −28° 59′ 15″
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 Dalim?
Dalim is a yellow-white main-sequence star. Its surface runs about 6,000 to 7,500°C, a shade hotter than the Sun. 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.
A little brighter and a little shorter-lived than the Sun, and near the edge of the range where a planet could plausibly hold liquid water for long enough to matter.
A star of this class gets two to four thousand million years.
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.
Dalim moves noticeably against the background sky, about 72 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 Dalim left in 1980, 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 Dalim dedication represent?
Dalim 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 Fornax in the sky.”
Where can you see Dalim?
It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 61°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 29°S. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.86 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Dalim belongs to Fornax, where it is the brightest star.
What does Dalim mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Dalim, 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, Dalim stands at 4° Taurus at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 24 April 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 Dalim 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 Dalim →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Dalim dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Dalim's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Dalim keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Dalim
- What does Dalim mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Dalim. Projected onto the zodiac, Dalim stands at 4° Taurus, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 24 April.
- Is Dalim the brightest star?
- Dalim shines at magnitude 3.86 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Dalim?
- Dalim is approximately 46 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 46 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Dalim?
- Dalim is the brightest star in Fornax.
- Can everyone see Dalim?
- It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 61°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 29°S. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.86 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Dalim an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Dalim 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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