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A dedicated star
Garnet Star
deep red · Cepheus · µ Cep
Dedicated to
Maya
by Her sister, June · August 12, 2026
“You were born on the brightest night of my life. Whenever you feel small, remember: there is a star that has carried your name since before you could read it, and it is still up there, still burning, still yours.”
This dedication
- Dedicated to
- Maya
- Dedicated by
- Her sister, June
- Recorded
- August 12, 2026
- Held until
- August 12, 2027
When this dedication ends, Garnet Star becomes available again. Want it? Put the date in your calendar.
Garnet Star at a glance
- Constellation
- Cepheus
- Other name
- µ Cep
- Catalogue number
- HIP 107259
- Distance
- Not quoted. The published parallax for this red supergiant is smaller than its own error bar, a known problem for stars whose surfaces boil at the scale the measurement works at, so no distance is quoted here.
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.08 naked-eye
- Star type
- M2-Ia
- Colour
- deep red
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 21h 43m 30s
- Declination
- +58° 46′ 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 Garnet Star?
Garnet Star is a red supergiant. 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 supergiant, which means it has left the stable part of its life and swollen enormously. Put it where the Sun is and its surface would swallow the inner planets. Stars this size do not fade quietly; this one will end as a supernova, and on a human timescale that could be tonight or in a million years.
Garnet Star 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.
Where can you see Garnet Star?
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 31°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 59°N. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.08 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Garnet Star belongs to Cepheus.
What does Garnet Star mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Garnet Star, 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, Garnet Star stands at 9° Aries at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 30 March 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 Garnet Star
- What does Garnet Star mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Garnet Star. Projected onto the zodiac, Garnet Star stands at 9° Aries, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 30 March.
- Is Garnet Star the brightest star?
- Garnet Star shines at magnitude 4.08 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Garnet Star?
- No distance is quoted for Garnet Star. The published parallax for this red supergiant is smaller than its own error bar, a known problem for stars whose surfaces boil at the scale the measurement works at, so no distance is quoted here.
- Which constellation contains Garnet Star?
- Garnet Star is part of Cepheus.
- Can everyone see Garnet Star?
- 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 31°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 59°N. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.08 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Garnet Star an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Garnet Star 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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