Preview. This is a sample dedication, shown so you can see what a dedicated star page looks like.
A dedicated star
Elnath
blue-white · Taurus · β Tau
Dedicated to
Maya
by Her sister, June · August 12, 2026
“You were born on the brightest night of my life. Whenever you feel small, remember: there is a star that has carried your name since before you could read it, and it is still up there, still burning, still yours.”
This dedication
- Dedicated to
- Maya
- Dedicated by
- Her sister, June
- Recorded
- August 12, 2026
- Held until
- August 12, 2027
When this dedication ends, Elnath becomes available again. Want it? Put the date in your calendar.
Elnath at a glance
- Constellation
- Taurus
- Other name
- β Tau
- Catalogue number
- HIP 25428
- Distance
- ≈ 134 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 1.65 naked-eye
- Star type
- B7 III
- Colour
- blue-white
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 05h 26m 18s
- Declination
- +28° 36′ 27″
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 Elnath?
Elnath is a blue-white giant. Its surface runs somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000°C, which is what gives it a blue-white cast. 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 blue-white star still in the steady part of its life would burn for tens of millions of years. 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.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Elnath tonight left in about 1892, some 134 years ago. Everything that has happened since, every person you have heard of from the last few centuries, happened while it was in transit.
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 also one of the brighter stars in the sky, which is why it carries a proper name at all rather than a catalogue number.
What does the name Elnath mean?
The traditional name Elnath, variously El Nath or Alnath, comes from the Arabic word النطح an-naţħ, meaning "the butting".
As in many other Arabic star names, the article ال is transliterated literally as el, yet overwhelmingly in Arabic pronunciation it is assimilated to the n, meaning it is omitted.
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.
Where can you see Elnath?
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 61°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 29°N. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.65 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Elnath belongs to Taurus.
What does Elnath mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Elnath, 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, Elnath stands at 22° Gemini at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 12 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.
Frequently asked questions about Elnath
- What does Elnath mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Elnath. Projected onto the zodiac, Elnath stands at 22° Gemini, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 12 June.
- Is Elnath the brightest star?
- Elnath shines at magnitude 1.65 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Elnath?
- Elnath is approximately 134 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 134 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Elnath?
- Elnath is part of Taurus.
- Can everyone see Elnath?
- 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 61°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 29°N. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.65 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Elnath an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Elnath 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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