The AsterNym star registry
Meleph
Meleph: the white star of Cancer
white · Cancer · ε Cnc
Meleph is a white star, burning hotter than our own Sun in the constellation Cancer, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 6.29 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Meleph 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
Meleph at a glance
- Constellation
- Cancer
- Other name
- ε Cnc
- Catalogue number
- HIP 42556
- Distance
- ≈ 587 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 6.29 naked-eye
- Star type
- Am
- Colour
- white
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 08h 40m 27s
- Declination
- +19° 32′ 41″
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 Meleph?
Meleph is a white star. Its surface runs around 7,500 to 10,000°C, hot enough to look white or blue-white to the eye. 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.
These are the classic bright white stars. Sirius and Vega are both this kind, and they are the reason people describe stars as white when most of the galaxy's stars are actually red and too faint to see.
A star of this class gets roughly a thousand million years, a tenth of what the Sun gets.
Meleph drifts about 3.6 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
Meleph is about 587 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1439. 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 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 Meleph dedication represent?
Meleph 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 Cancer in the sky.”
Where can you see Meleph?
It sits 20° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 70°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 20°N. It stands highest at midnight in January, so January and February evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.29 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Meleph belongs to Cancer.
What does Meleph mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Meleph, 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, Meleph stands at 7° Leo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 27 July 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 Meleph 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 Meleph →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Meleph dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Meleph's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Meleph keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Meleph
- What does Meleph mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Meleph. Projected onto the zodiac, Meleph stands at 7° Leo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 27 July.
- Is Meleph the brightest star?
- Meleph shines at magnitude 6.29 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Meleph?
- Meleph is approximately 587 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 587 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Meleph?
- Meleph is part of Cancer.
- Can everyone see Meleph?
- It sits 20° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 70°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 20°N. It stands highest at midnight in January, so January and February evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.29 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Meleph an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Meleph 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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