The AsterNym star registry
Kochab
Kochab: the warm orange star of Ursa Minor
warm orange · Ursa Minor · β UMi
Kochab is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Ursa Minor, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.08 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Kochab 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
Kochab at a glance
- Constellation
- Ursa Minor
- Other name
- β UMi
- Catalogue number
- HIP 72607
- Distance
- ≈ 131 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.08 naked-eye
- Star type
- K4 III
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The far northern sky
- Right ascension
- 14h 50m 42s
- Declination
- +74° 09′ 20″
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 Kochab?
Kochab 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.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Kochab tonight left in about 1895, some 131 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 could a Kochab dedication represent?
Kochab 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 Ursa Minor in the sky.”
Where can you see Kochab?
It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 16°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 74°N. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.08 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Kochab belongs to Ursa Minor.
What does Kochab mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Kochab, 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, Kochab stands at 13° Leo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 2 August 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 Kochab 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 Kochab →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Kochab dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Kochab's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Kochab keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Kochab
- What does Kochab mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Kochab. Projected onto the zodiac, Kochab stands at 13° Leo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 2 August.
- Is Kochab the brightest star?
- Kochab shines at magnitude 2.08 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Kochab?
- Kochab is approximately 131 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 131 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Kochab?
- Kochab is part of Ursa Minor.
- Can everyone see Kochab?
- It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 16°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 74°N. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.08 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Kochab an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Kochab 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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