The AsterNym star registry
Jiantai
Jiantai: the deep red star of Lyra
deep red · Lyra · δ2 Lyr
Jiantai is a deep red star in the constellation Lyra, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.30 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Jiantai 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
Jiantai at a glance
- Constellation
- Lyra
- Other name
- δ2 Lyr
- Catalogue number
- HIP 92791
- Distance
- ≈ 736 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.30 naked-eye
- Star type
- M4IIvar
- Colour
- deep red
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 18h 54m 30s
- Declination
- +36° 53′ 55″
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 Jiantai?
Jiantai is a red bright giant. 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 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.
Jiantai 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
Jiantai is about 736 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1290. 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 could a Jiantai dedication represent?
Jiantai 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 Lyra in the sky.”
Where can you see Jiantai?
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 53°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 37°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.30 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Jiantai belongs to Lyra.
What does Jiantai mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Jiantai, 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, Jiantai stands at 21° Capricorn at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 10 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 Jiantai 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 Jiantai →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Jiantai dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Jiantai's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Jiantai keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Jiantai
- What does Jiantai mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Jiantai. Projected onto the zodiac, Jiantai stands at 21° Capricorn, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 10 January.
- Is Jiantai the brightest star?
- Jiantai shines at magnitude 4.30 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Jiantai?
- Jiantai is approximately 736 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 736 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Jiantai?
- Jiantai is part of Lyra.
- Can everyone see Jiantai?
- 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 53°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 37°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.30 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Jiantai an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Jiantai 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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