The AsterNym star registry
Hassaleh
Hassaleh: the warm orange star of Auriga
warm orange · Auriga · ι Aur
Hassaleh is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Auriga, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.69 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Hassaleh 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
Hassaleh at a glance
- Constellation
- Auriga
- Other name
- ι Aur
- Catalogue number
- HIP 23015
- Distance
- ≈ 493 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.69 naked-eye
- Star type
- K3IIvar
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 04h 57m 00s
- Declination
- +33° 09′ 58″
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 Hassaleh?
Hassaleh is an orange bright giant. Its surface runs roughly 4,000 to 5,000°C, cool enough that the light carries a visible orange. 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. An orange star still in the steady part of its life would burn for tens of thousands of millions of years. 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 sits between a giant and a supergiant: already expanded well beyond its original size, already past the steady middle of its life, and bright enough to be picked out from a very long way off.
Hassaleh 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
Hassaleh is about 493 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1533. 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 Hassaleh mean?
It bore the traditional name Al Kab, short for Kabdhilinan, from the Arabic كعب ذي العنان kaʽb ðīl-ʽinān "the ankle of the rein holder (charioteer)".
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 Hassaleh dedication represent?
Hassaleh 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 Auriga in the sky.”
Where can you see Hassaleh?
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 57°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 33°N. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.69 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Hassaleh belongs to Auriga.
What does Hassaleh mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Hassaleh, 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, Hassaleh stands at 16° Gemini at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 6 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 Hassaleh 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 Hassaleh →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Hassaleh dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Hassaleh's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Hassaleh keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Hassaleh
- What does Hassaleh mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Hassaleh. Projected onto the zodiac, Hassaleh stands at 16° Gemini, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 6 June.
- Is Hassaleh the brightest star?
- Hassaleh shines at magnitude 2.69 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Hassaleh?
- Hassaleh is approximately 493 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 493 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Hassaleh?
- Hassaleh is part of Auriga.
- Can everyone see Hassaleh?
- 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 57°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 33°N. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.69 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Hassaleh an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Hassaleh 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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