The AsterNym star registry
Irena
Irena: the yellow-white star of Hercules
yellow-white · Hercules · WASP-38
Irena is a yellow-white star, a near cousin of our own Sun's colour in the constellation Hercules, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 9.41 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Irena 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
Irena at a glance
- Constellation
- Hercules
- Other name
- WASP-38
- Catalogue number
- WASP-38
- Distance
- ≈ 445 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 9.41 telescope
- Star type
- F8
- Colour
- yellow-white
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 16h 15m 50s
- Declination
- +10° 01′ 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 Irena?
Irena is a yellow-white star. Its surface runs about 6,000 to 7,500°C, a shade hotter than the Sun. 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.
A little brighter and a little shorter-lived than the Sun, and near the edge of the range where a planet could plausibly hold liquid water for long enough to matter.
A star of this class gets two to four thousand million years.
The light you are looking at is old
Irena is about 445 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1581. 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 Irena dedication represent?
Irena 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 Hercules in the sky.”
Where can you see Irena?
It sits 10° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 80°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 10°N. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 9.41 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Irena belongs to Hercules.
What does Irena mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Irena, 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, Irena stands at 29° Scorpio at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 18 November 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 Irena 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 Irena →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Irena dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Irena's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Irena keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Irena
- What does Irena mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Irena. Projected onto the zodiac, Irena stands at 29° Scorpio, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 18 November.
- Is Irena the brightest star?
- Irena shines at magnitude 9.41 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Irena?
- Irena is approximately 445 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 445 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Irena?
- Irena is part of Hercules.
- Can everyone see Irena?
- It sits 10° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 80°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 10°N. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 9.41 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Irena an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Irena 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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