Gloas, painted as a golden star

The AsterNym star registry

Gloas

Gloas: the golden star of Lynx

golden · Lynx · WASP-13

Gloas is a golden star, warmer-toned than our Sun in the constellation Lynx, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 10.38 it is a binocular or telescope object.

Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Gloas 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

Gloas at a glance

Constellation
Lynx
Other name
WASP-13
Catalogue number
WASP-13
Distance
≈ 753 light-years
Brightness
Magnitude 10.38 telescope
Star type
G1V
Colour
golden
Best seen from
The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
Right ascension
09h 20m 25s
Declination
+33° 52′ 57″

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 Gloas?

Gloas is a yellow main-sequence star. Its surface runs about 5,500°C, near enough the Sun's own surface temperature. 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.

This is the Sun's class. Looking at a star like this is the closest you get to seeing what our own star looks like from outside, which is a stranger thought than it first sounds.

A star of this class gets around ten thousand million years, and the Sun is halfway through its own.

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

Gloas is about 753 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1273. 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 Gloas dedication represent?

Gloas 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 Lynx in the sky.”

Dedicate Gloas →

Where can you see Gloas?

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 56°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 34°N. It stands highest at midnight in February, so February and March evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 10.38 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.

Gloas belongs to Lynx.

What does Gloas mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Gloas, 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, Gloas stands at 11° Leo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 1 August 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 Gloas 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 Gloas →

Real star · your message · a page to share

Your Gloas dedication includes

  • Your chosen dedication name
  • Your personal message
  • Gloas's real astronomical coordinates
  • A shareable dedication page
  • Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
  • An optional printable certificate and gift presentation

Gloas keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.

Frequently asked questions about Gloas

What does Gloas mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Gloas. Projected onto the zodiac, Gloas stands at 11° Leo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 1 August.
Is Gloas the brightest star?
Gloas shines at magnitude 10.38 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
How far away is Gloas?
Gloas is approximately 753 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 753 years ago.
Which constellation contains Gloas?
Gloas is part of Lynx.
Can everyone see Gloas?
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 56°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 34°N. It stands highest at midnight in February, so February and March evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 10.38 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Is dedicating Gloas an official astronomical renaming?
No. Gloas 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

The constellation Lynx, its stars sized by brightness and coloured by spectral type
Lynx, drawn from catalogued positions: brighter stars are larger, and the colours follow spectral type. North is up and east is left, the sky-chart convention, so it is mirrored against a map of the ground. The joining lines are one drawing convention among several; the IAU fixes the boundaries, not the figure.
AsterNym dedications are personal commemorative records: they are not recognized by the International Astronomical Union, do not change scientific catalogue names, and do not confer ownership of a star.