The AsterNym star registry
Franz
Franz: the yellow-white star of Hercules
yellow-white · Hercules · HAT-P-14
Franz is a yellow-white star, a near cousin of our own Sun's colour in the constellation Hercules, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 9.86 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Franz 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
Franz at a glance
- Constellation
- Hercules
- Other name
- HAT-P-14
- Catalogue number
- HAT-P-14
- Distance
- ≈ 733 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 9.86 telescope
- Star type
- F5V
- Colour
- yellow-white
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 17h 20m 28s
- Declination
- +38° 14′ 32″
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 Franz?
Franz 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.
The light you are looking at is old
Franz is about 733 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1293. 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 Franz dedication represent?
Franz 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 Hercules in the sky.”
Where can you see Franz?
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 52°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 38°N. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 9.86 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Franz belongs to Hercules.
What does Franz mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Franz, 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, Franz stands at 13° Sagittarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 2 December 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 Franz 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 Franz →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Franz dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Franz's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Franz keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Franz
- What does Franz mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Franz. Projected onto the zodiac, Franz stands at 13° Sagittarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 2 December.
- Is Franz the brightest star?
- Franz shines at magnitude 9.86 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Franz?
- Franz is approximately 733 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 733 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Franz?
- Franz is part of Hercules.
- Can everyone see Franz?
- 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 52°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 38°N. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 9.86 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Franz an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Franz 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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