The AsterNym star registry
Furud
Furud: the blue star of Canis Major
blue · Canis Major · ζ CMa
Furud is a blue star in the constellation Canis Major, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.02 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Furud 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
Furud at a glance
- Constellation
- Canis Major
- Other name
- ζ CMa
- Catalogue number
- HIP 30122
- Distance
- ≈ 362 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 3.02 naked-eye
- Star type
- B2.5 V
- Colour
- blue
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 06h 20m 14s
- Declination
- −30° 03′ 47″
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 Furud?
Furud is a blue-white main-sequence star. 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.
It is spending its fuel at a rate the Sun never will. Most of the bright stars in familiar constellations are this kind, which is why the night sky looks younger and hotter than the average star actually is.
A star of this class gets tens of millions of years, against the Sun's ten thousand million.
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.
Furud barely moves against the background sky, which is mostly a statement about how far away it is. For every practical purpose, including yours, it is fixed.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Furud tonight left in about 1664, some 362 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 comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.
What does the name Furud mean?
The traditional name Furud or Phurud derives from the Arabic ألفرود al-furūd "the solitary ones".
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.
What could a Furud dedication represent?
Furud 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 Canis Major in the sky.”
Where can you see Furud?
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 December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.02 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Furud belongs to Canis Major.
What does Furud mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Furud, 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, Furud stands at 7° Cancer at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 27 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.
Dedicate Furud 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 Furud →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Furud dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Furud's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Furud keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Furud
- What does Furud mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Furud. Projected onto the zodiac, Furud stands at 7° Cancer, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 27 June.
- Is Furud the brightest star?
- Furud shines at magnitude 3.02 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Furud?
- Furud is approximately 362 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 362 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Furud?
- Furud is part of Canis Major.
- Can everyone see Furud?
- 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 December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.02 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Furud an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Furud 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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