The AsterNym star registry
Dust-Ball
Dust-Ball: the white star of Perseus
white · Perseus · V* V927 Per
Dust-Ball is a white star, burning hotter than our own Sun in the constellation Perseus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 11.22 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Dust-Ball 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
Dust-Ball at a glance
- Constellation
- Perseus
- Other name
- V* V927 Per
- Catalogue number
- V* V927 Per
- Distance
- ≈ 1,010 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 11.22 telescope
- Star type
- A0
- Colour
- white
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 03h 44m 51s
- Declination
- +32° 19′ 06″
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 Dust-Ball?
Dust-Ball is a white star. Its surface runs around 7,500 to 10,000°C, hot enough to look white or blue-white to the eye. 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.
These are the classic bright white stars. Sirius and Vega are both this kind, and they are the reason people describe stars as white when most of the galaxy's stars are actually red and too faint to see.
A star of this class gets roughly a thousand million years, a tenth of what the Sun gets.
The light you are looking at is old
Dust-Ball is about 1,010 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1016. 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 Dust-Ball dedication represent?
Dust-Ball 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 Perseus in the sky.”
Where can you see Dust-Ball?
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 58°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 32°N. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 11.22 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Dust-Ball belongs to Perseus.
What does Dust-Ball mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Dust-Ball, 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, Dust-Ball stands at 1° Gemini at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 21 May 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 Dust-Ball 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 Dust-Ball →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Dust-Ball dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Dust-Ball's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Dust-Ball keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Dust-Ball
- What does Dust-Ball mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Dust-Ball. Projected onto the zodiac, Dust-Ball stands at 1° Gemini, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 21 May.
- Is Dust-Ball the brightest star?
- Dust-Ball shines at magnitude 11.22 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Dust-Ball?
- Dust-Ball is approximately 1,010 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 1,010 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Dust-Ball?
- Dust-Ball is part of Perseus.
- Can everyone see Dust-Ball?
- 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 58°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 32°N. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 11.22 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Dust-Ball an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Dust-Ball 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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