The AsterNym star registry
Dombay
Dombay: the warm orange star of Ursa Major
warm orange · Ursa Major · HAT-P-3
Dombay is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Ursa Major, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 11.28 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Dombay 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
Dombay at a glance
- Constellation
- Ursa Major
- Other name
- HAT-P-3
- Catalogue number
- HAT-P-3
- Distance
- ≈ 440 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 11.28 telescope
- Star type
- K1V
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 13h 44m 23s
- Declination
- +48° 01′ 43″
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 Dombay?
Dombay is an orange main-sequence 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.
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.
The light you are looking at is old
Dombay is about 440 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1586. 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 Dombay dedication represent?
Dombay 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 Ursa Major in the sky.”
Where can you see Dombay?
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 42°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 48°N. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 11.28 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Dombay belongs to Ursa Major.
What does Dombay mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Dombay, 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, Dombay stands at 27° Virgo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 16 September 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 Dombay 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 Dombay →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Dombay dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Dombay's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Dombay keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Dombay
- What does Dombay mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Dombay. Projected onto the zodiac, Dombay stands at 27° Virgo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 16 September.
- Is Dombay the brightest star?
- Dombay shines at magnitude 11.28 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Dombay?
- Dombay is approximately 440 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 440 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Dombay?
- Dombay is part of Ursa Major.
- Can everyone see Dombay?
- 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 42°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 48°N. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 11.28 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Dombay an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Dombay 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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