The AsterNym star registry
Liesma
Liesma: the warm orange star of Ursa Major
warm orange · Ursa Major · HD 118203
Liesma is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Ursa Major, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 8.05 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Liesma 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
Liesma at a glance
- Constellation
- Ursa Major
- Other name
- HD 118203
- Catalogue number
- HIP 66192
- Distance
- ≈ 289 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 8.05 telescope
- Star type
- K0
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 13h 34m 03s
- Declination
- +53° 43′ 43″
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 Liesma?
Liesma is an orange 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.
Liesma drifts about 11.8 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 Liesma tonight left in about 1737, some 289 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 sits at the edge of what an unaided eye can do, so finding it is a deliberate act rather than an accident.
What could a Liesma dedication represent?
Liesma 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 Major in the sky.”
Where can you see Liesma?
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 36°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 54°N. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 8.05 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Liesma belongs to Ursa Major.
What does Liesma mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Liesma, 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, Liesma stands at 19° Virgo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 8 September 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 Liesma 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 Liesma →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Liesma dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Liesma's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Liesma keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Liesma
- What does Liesma mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Liesma. Projected onto the zodiac, Liesma stands at 19° Virgo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 8 September.
- Is Liesma the brightest star?
- Liesma shines at magnitude 8.05 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Liesma?
- Liesma is approximately 289 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 289 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Liesma?
- Liesma is part of Ursa Major.
- Can everyone see Liesma?
- 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 36°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 54°N. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 8.05 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Liesma an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Liesma 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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