The AsterNym star registry
Kaus Australis
Kaus Australis: the blue-white star of Sagittarius
blue-white · Sagittarius · ε Sgr
Kaus Australis is a blue-white star, the colour of the hottest, youngest suns in the constellation Sagittarius, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 1.79 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Kaus Australis 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
Kaus Australis at a glance
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Other name
- ε Sgr
- Catalogue number
- HIP 90185
- Distance
- ≈ 143 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 1.79 naked-eye
- Star type
- B9.5 III
- Colour
- blue-white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 18h 24m 10s
- Declination
- −34° 23′ 05″
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 Kaus Australis?
Kaus Australis is a blue-white giant. 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.
Its colour is not the whole story. A blue-white star still in the steady part of its life would burn for tens 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.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Kaus Australis tonight left in about 1883, some 143 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 also one of the brighter stars in the sky, which is why it carries a proper name at all rather than a catalogue number.
What does the name Kaus Australis mean?
It bore the traditional name Kaus Australis, which derived from the Arabic قوس qaws 'bow' and Latin austrālis 'southern'.
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 Kaus Australis dedication represent?
Kaus Australis 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 Sagittarius in the sky.”
Where can you see Kaus Australis?
It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 56°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 34°S. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.79 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Kaus Australis belongs to Sagittarius, where it is the brightest star.
What does Kaus Australis mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Kaus Australis, 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, Kaus Australis stands at 5° Capricorn at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 24 December 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 Kaus Australis 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 Kaus Australis →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Kaus Australis dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Kaus Australis's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Kaus Australis keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Kaus Australis
- What does Kaus Australis mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Kaus Australis. Projected onto the zodiac, Kaus Australis stands at 5° Capricorn, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 24 December.
- Is Kaus Australis the brightest star?
- Kaus Australis shines at magnitude 1.79 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Kaus Australis?
- Kaus Australis is approximately 143 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 143 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Kaus Australis?
- Kaus Australis is the brightest star in Sagittarius.
- Can everyone see Kaus Australis?
- It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 56°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 34°S. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.79 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Kaus Australis an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Kaus Australis 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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