The AsterNym star registry
Gamma Cassiopeiae
Gamma Cassiopeiae: the blue star of Cassiopeia
blue · Cassiopeia · γ Cas
Gamma Cassiopeiae is a blue star in the constellation Cassiopeia, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.47 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Gamma Cassiopeiae 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
Gamma Cassiopeiae at a glance
- Constellation
- Cassiopeia
- Other name
- γ Cas
- Catalogue number
- HIP 4427
- Distance
- ≈ 550 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.47 naked-eye
- Star type
- B0.5 IVe
- Colour
- blue
- Best seen from
- The far northern sky
- Right ascension
- 00h 56m 42s
- Declination
- +60° 43′ 00″
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 Gamma Cassiopeiae?
Gamma Cassiopeiae is a blue-white subgiant. 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 subgiant, caught in the short crossing between an ordinary life and a giant one. Its core has run out of hydrogen but its outer layers have not finished expanding, and astronomically this stage passes quickly.
The light you are looking at is old
Gamma Cassiopeiae is about 550 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1476. 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 is comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.
What does the name Gamma Cassiopeiae mean?
47, it had no traditional Arabic or Latin name.
The Chinese name Tsih, "the whip", is commonly associated with this star.
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 Gamma Cassiopeiae dedication represent?
Gamma Cassiopeiae 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 Cassiopeia in the sky.”
Where can you see Gamma Cassiopeiae?
It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 29°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 61°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.47 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Gamma Cassiopeiae belongs to Cassiopeia.
What does Gamma Cassiopeiae mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Gamma Cassiopeiae, 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, Gamma Cassiopeiae stands at 13° Taurus at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 4 May 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 Gamma Cassiopeiae 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 Gamma Cassiopeiae →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Gamma Cassiopeiae dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Gamma Cassiopeiae's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Gamma Cassiopeiae keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Gamma Cassiopeiae
- What does Gamma Cassiopeiae mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Gamma Cassiopeiae. Projected onto the zodiac, Gamma Cassiopeiae stands at 13° Taurus, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 4 May.
- Is Gamma Cassiopeiae the brightest star?
- Gamma Cassiopeiae shines at magnitude 2.47 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Gamma Cassiopeiae?
- Gamma Cassiopeiae is approximately 550 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 550 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Gamma Cassiopeiae?
- Gamma Cassiopeiae is part of Cassiopeia.
- Can everyone see Gamma Cassiopeiae?
- It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 29°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 61°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.47 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Gamma Cassiopeiae an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Gamma Cassiopeiae 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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