The AsterNym star registry
Gacrux
Gacrux: the deep red star of Crux
deep red · Crux · γ Cru
Gacrux is a deep red star in the constellation Crux, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 1.63 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Gacrux 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
Gacrux at a glance
- Constellation
- Crux
- Other name
- γ Cru
- Catalogue number
- HIP 61084
- Distance
- ≈ 88 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 1.63 naked-eye
- Star type
- M3.5 III
- Colour
- deep red
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 12h 31m 10s
- Declination
- −57° 06′ 48″
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 Gacrux?
Gacrux is a red giant. Its surface runs under 4,000°C, which is cool as stars go and why the colour is unmistakably red. 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 red star still in the steady part of its life would burn for longer than the universe has yet existed. 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 you can see from Gacrux left in 1938, 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 Gacrux mean?
The name Gacrux was coined by modern navigators as a contraction of the Bayer designation no later than the 1940s.
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 Gacrux dedication represent?
Gacrux 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 Crux in the sky.”
Where can you see Gacrux?
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 33°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 57°S. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.63 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Gacrux belongs to Crux.
What does Gacrux mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Gacrux, 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, Gacrux stands at 6° Scorpio at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 26 October 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 Gacrux 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 Gacrux →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Gacrux dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Gacrux's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Gacrux keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Gacrux
- What does Gacrux mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Gacrux. Projected onto the zodiac, Gacrux stands at 6° Scorpio, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 26 October.
- Is Gacrux the brightest star?
- Gacrux shines at magnitude 1.63 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Gacrux?
- Gacrux is approximately 88 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 88 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Gacrux?
- Gacrux is part of Crux.
- Can everyone see Gacrux?
- 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 33°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 57°S. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.63 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Gacrux an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Gacrux 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.
Explore nearby stars
