Kalasungsang, painted as a warm orange star

The AsterNym star registry

Kalasungsang

Kalasungsang: the warm orange star of Boötes

warm orange · Boötes · ρ Bootis

Kalasungsang is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Boötes, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.59 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.

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

Kalasungsang at a glance

Constellation
Boötes
Other name
ρ Bootis
Catalogue number
HIP 71053
Distance
≈ 160 light-years
Brightness
Magnitude 3.59 naked-eye
Star type
K3III
Colour
warm orange
Best seen from
The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
Right ascension
14h 31m 50s
Declination
+30° 22′ 17″

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 Kalasungsang?

Kalasungsang is an orange 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 is a giant, which is what a star becomes when it exhausts the hydrogen in its core. It has swollen outward and cooled at the surface, and it is now brighter than it ever was as a young star. The Sun will do this too, in about five thousand million years.

Kalasungsang drifts about 15.7 arcseconds a century against the stars behind it. Slow by any human measure, and still enough that the sky your distant descendants see will not be the one in your photographs.

The light you are looking at is old

The light arriving from Kalasungsang tonight left in about 1866, some 160 years ago. Everything that has happened since, every person you have heard of from the last few centuries, happened while it was in transit.

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 Kalasungsang mean?

The term is derived from Sanskrit काल kālá meaning death or time.

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 Kalasungsang dedication represent?

Kalasungsang 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 Boötes in the sky.”

Dedicate Kalasungsang →

Where can you see Kalasungsang?

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 60°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 30°N. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.59 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.

Kalasungsang belongs to Boötes.

What does Kalasungsang mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Kalasungsang, 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, Kalasungsang stands at 22° Libra at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 12 October 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 Kalasungsang 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 Kalasungsang →

Real star · your message · a page to share

Your Kalasungsang dedication includes

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

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

Frequently asked questions about Kalasungsang

What does Kalasungsang mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Kalasungsang. Projected onto the zodiac, Kalasungsang stands at 22° Libra, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 12 October.
Is Kalasungsang the brightest star?
Kalasungsang shines at magnitude 3.59 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
How far away is Kalasungsang?
Kalasungsang is approximately 160 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 160 years ago.
Which constellation contains Kalasungsang?
Kalasungsang is part of Boötes.
Can everyone see Kalasungsang?
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 60°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 30°N. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.59 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Is dedicating Kalasungsang an official astronomical renaming?
No. Kalasungsang 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 Boötes, its stars sized by brightness and coloured by spectral type
Boötes, 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.