The AsterNym star registry
Lumbung
Lumbung: the blue-white star of Crux
blue-white · Crux · 39 Cru
Lumbung is a blue-white star, the colour of the hottest, youngest suns in the constellation Crux, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.94 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Lumbung 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
Lumbung at a glance
- Constellation
- Crux
- Other name
- 39 Cru
- Catalogue number
- HIP 61966
- Distance
- ≈ 956 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.94 naked-eye
- Star type
- B6IV
- Colour
- blue-white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 12h 41m 57s
- Declination
- −59° 41′ 09″
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 Lumbung?
Lumbung is a blue-white subgiant. 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.
It is spending its fuel at a rate the Sun never will. Most of the bright stars in familiar constellations are this kind, which is why the night sky looks younger and hotter than the average star actually is.
A star of this class gets tens of millions of years, against the Sun's ten thousand million.
It is a subgiant, caught in the short crossing between an ordinary life and a giant one. Its core has run out of hydrogen but its outer layers have not finished expanding, and astronomically this stage passes quickly.
Lumbung 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
Lumbung is about 956 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1070. 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 is comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.
What could a Lumbung dedication represent?
Lumbung 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 Crux in the sky.”
Where can you see Lumbung?
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 30°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 60°S. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.94 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Lumbung belongs to Crux.
What does Lumbung mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Lumbung, 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, Lumbung stands at 10° Scorpio at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 30 October 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 Lumbung 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 Lumbung →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Lumbung dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Lumbung's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Lumbung keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Lumbung
- What does Lumbung mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Lumbung. Projected onto the zodiac, Lumbung stands at 10° Scorpio, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 30 October.
- Is Lumbung the brightest star?
- Lumbung shines at magnitude 4.94 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Lumbung?
- Lumbung is approximately 956 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 956 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Lumbung?
- Lumbung is part of Crux.
- Can everyone see Lumbung?
- 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 30°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 60°S. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.94 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Lumbung an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Lumbung 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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