The AsterNym star registry
Keid
Keid: the warm orange star of Eridanus
warm orange · Eridanus · ο2 Eri
Keid is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Eridanus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.43 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Keid 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
Keid at a glance
- Constellation
- Eridanus
- Other name
- ο2 Eri
- Catalogue number
- HIP 19849
- Distance
- ≈ 16.0 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.43 naked-eye
- Star type
- K1V
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 04h 15m 16s
- Declination
- −07° 39′ 10″
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 Keid?
Keid is an orange main-sequence star. 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.
Nothing of this kind has ever died of old age, anywhere, because the universe is not old enough yet. Every one that has ever formed is still burning.
A star of this class gets twenty to fifty thousand million years, far longer than the universe has yet existed.
It is a main-sequence star, which despite the word dwarf simply means it is in the long stable middle of its life, fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun is doing now.
Keid is one of the fastest-moving stars in the sky. It shifts about 409 arcseconds every century, which sounds tiny and is not: over a human lifetime it visibly changes position against the stars behind it. The constellations are not fixed, they are just slow, and this one is in a hurry.
The light you are looking at is old
Light travels fast but not instantly, so what reaches your eye from Keid tonight set out in 2010. That is inside a single lifetime. Someone alive now was already alive when this particular light left.
Distance is also the honest limit of what a star can be to you. It is a real object, unimaginably large, and it does not know you exist. What it can be is a fixed point you agreed to attach a meaning to, which is the oldest use people have ever had for the sky.
It is comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.
What does the name Keid mean?
The system bore the traditional name Keid derived from the Arabic word القيض (alqayḍ) meaning "the eggshells", alluding to its neighbour Beid (Arabic "egg").
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 Keid dedication represent?
Keid 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 Eridanus in the sky.”
Where can you see Keid?
It sits 8° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 82°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 8°S. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.43 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Keid belongs to Eridanus.
What does Keid mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Keid, 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, Keid stands at 0° Gemini at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 20 May 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 Keid 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 Keid →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Keid dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Keid's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Keid keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Keid
- What does Keid mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Keid. Projected onto the zodiac, Keid stands at 0° Gemini, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 20 May.
- Is Keid the brightest star?
- Keid shines at magnitude 4.43 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Keid?
- Keid is approximately 16.0 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 16 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Keid?
- Keid is part of Eridanus.
- Can everyone see Keid?
- It sits 8° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 82°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 8°S. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.43 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Keid an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Keid 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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