The AsterNym star registry
Markab
Markab: the blue-white star of Pegasus
blue-white · Pegasus · α Peg
Markab is a blue-white star, the colour of the hottest, youngest suns in the constellation Pegasus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.49 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Markab 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
Markab at a glance
- Constellation
- Pegasus
- Other name
- α Peg
- Catalogue number
- HIP 113963
- Distance
- ≈ 133 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.49 naked-eye
- Star type
- B9 III
- Colour
- blue-white
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 23h 04m 46s
- Declination
- +15° 12′ 19″
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 Markab?
Markab 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 Markab tonight left in about 1893, some 133 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 Markab dedication represent?
Markab 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 Pegasus in the sky.”
Where can you see Markab?
It sits 15° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 75°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 15°N. It stands highest at midnight in September, so September and October evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.49 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Markab belongs to Pegasus.
What does Markab mean in astrology?
The saddle of Pegasus. Behenian by some lists, nature of Mars and Mercury: the steady mount amid speed. Discipline that keeps velocity survivable.
Projected onto the zodiac the way fixed-star astrology reads any star, Markab stands at 23° Pisces at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 14 March 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 Markab 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 Markab →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Markab dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Markab's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Markab keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Markab
- What does Markab mean in astrology?
- The saddle of Pegasus. Behenian by some lists, nature of Mars and Mercury: the steady mount amid speed. Discipline that keeps velocity survivable. Projected onto the zodiac, Markab stands at 23° Pisces, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 14 March.
- Is Markab the brightest star?
- Markab shines at magnitude 2.49 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Markab?
- Markab is approximately 133 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 133 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Markab?
- Markab is part of Pegasus.
- Can everyone see Markab?
- It sits 15° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 75°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 15°N. It stands highest at midnight in September, so September and October evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.49 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Markab an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Markab 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.
Explore nearby stars
