The AsterNym star registry
Kamelos
Kamelos: the warm orange star of Camelopardalis
warm orange · Camelopardalis · HR 2363
Kamelos is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Camelopardalis, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 5.72 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Kamelos 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
Kamelos at a glance
- Constellation
- Camelopardalis
- Other name
- HR 2363
- Catalogue number
- HIP 31940
- Distance
- ≈ 698 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 5.72 naked-eye
- Star type
- K5III
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The far northern sky
- Right ascension
- 06h 40m 29s
- Declination
- +77° 59′ 45″
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 Kamelos?
Kamelos 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.
Kamelos 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
Kamelos is about 698 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1328. 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 does the name Kamelos mean?
Kamelos is Greek for camel, a pun on the constellation Camelopardalis (literally "spotted camel", representing a giraffe), applied to an arbitrary star in the constellation.
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 Kamelos dedication represent?
Kamelos 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 Camelopardalis in the sky.”
Where can you see Kamelos?
It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 12°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 78°N. It stands highest at midnight in January, so January and February evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 5.72 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Kamelos belongs to Camelopardalis.
What does Kamelos mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Kamelos, 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, Kamelos stands at 3° Cancer at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 23 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 Kamelos 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 Kamelos →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Kamelos dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Kamelos's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Kamelos keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Kamelos
- What does Kamelos mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Kamelos. Projected onto the zodiac, Kamelos stands at 3° Cancer, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 23 June.
- Is Kamelos the brightest star?
- Kamelos shines at magnitude 5.72 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Kamelos?
- Kamelos is approximately 698 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 698 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Kamelos?
- Kamelos is part of Camelopardalis.
- Can everyone see Kamelos?
- It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 12°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 78°N. It stands highest at midnight in January, so January and February evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 5.72 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Kamelos an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Kamelos 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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