Fomalhaut

Fomalhaut at a glance

Constellation

Piscis Austrinus

Other name

α PsA

Catalogue number

HIP 113368

Distance

≈ 25 light-years

Brightness

Magnitude 1.16 naked-eye

Star type

A3 V

Colour

white

Best seen from

The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes

Right ascension

22h 57m 39s

Declination

−29° 37′ 20″

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 Fomalhaut?

Fomalhaut is a white main-sequence 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.

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

The light you can see from Fomalhaut left in 2001, 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 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 Fomalhaut mean?

The star's traditional name derives from scientific Arabic فم الحوت fam al-ḥūt (al-janūbī) "the mouth of the Fish" (literally, "mouth of the whale"), a translation of how Ptolemy labeled it.

Fam in Arabic means "mouth", al "the", and ḥūt "fish" or "whale".

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 Fomalhaut?

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 60°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 30°S. It stands highest at midnight in September, so September and October evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.16 it is bright enough to hold its own over city lights.

Fomalhaut belongs to Piscis Austrinus, where it is the brightest star.

What does Fomalhaut mean in astrology?

The "mouth of the Fish" and the fourth Persian royal star, watcher of the south. The tradition gives it the nature of Venus and Mercury and reads it as the most idealistic of the four: charisma and lasting fame where the ideals stay clean, dissolution where they don't.

Projected onto the zodiac the way fixed-star astrology reads any star, Fomalhaut stands at 3° Pisces at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 22 February 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 Fomalhaut

What does Fomalhaut mean in astrology?

The "mouth of the Fish" and the fourth Persian royal star, watcher of the south. The tradition gives it the nature of Venus and Mercury and reads it as the most idealistic of the four: charisma and lasting fame where the ideals stay clean, dissolution where they don't. Projected onto the zodiac, Fomalhaut stands at 3° Pisces, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 22 February.

Is Fomalhaut the brightest star?

Fomalhaut shines at magnitude 1.16 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.

How far away is Fomalhaut?

Fomalhaut is approximately 25 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 25 years ago.

Which constellation contains Fomalhaut?

Fomalhaut is the brightest star in Piscis Austrinus.

Can everyone see Fomalhaut?

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 60°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 30°S. It stands highest at midnight in September, so September and October evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.16 it is bright enough to hold its own over city lights.

Is dedicating Fomalhaut an official astronomical renaming?

No. Fomalhaut 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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