The AsterNym star registry
Hru
Hru: the blue-white star of Aquila
blue-white · Aquila · σ Aql
Hru is a blue-white star, the colour of the hottest, youngest suns in the constellation Aquila, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 5.17 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Hru 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
Hru at a glance
- Constellation
- Aquila
- Other name
- σ Aql
- Catalogue number
- HIP 96665
- Distance
- ≈ 780 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 5.17 naked-eye
- Star type
- B3V + B3V
- Colour
- blue-white
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 19h 39m 12s
- Declination
- +05° 23′ 52″
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 Hru?
Hru is a blue-white main-sequence star. 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 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.
Hru 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
Hru is about 780 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1246. 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 Hru dedication represent?
Hru 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 Aquila in the sky.”
Where can you see Hru?
It sits 5° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 85°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 5°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 5.17 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Hru belongs to Aquila.
What does Hru mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Hru, 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, Hru stands at 27° Capricorn at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 16 January 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 Hru 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 Hru →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Hru dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Hru's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Hru keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Hru
- What does Hru mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Hru. Projected onto the zodiac, Hru stands at 27° Capricorn, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 16 January.
- Is Hru the brightest star?
- Hru shines at magnitude 5.17 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Hru?
- Hru is approximately 780 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 780 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Hru?
- Hru is part of Aquila.
- Can everyone see Hru?
- It sits 5° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 85°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 5°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 5.17 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Hru an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Hru 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
