Preview. This is a sample dedication, shown so you can see what a dedicated star page looks like.
A dedicated star
Menkib
blue · Perseus · ξ Per
Dedicated to
Maya
by Her sister, June · August 12, 2026
“You were born on the brightest night of my life. Whenever you feel small, remember: there is a star that has carried your name since before you could read it, and it is still up there, still burning, still yours.”
This dedication
- Dedicated to
- Maya
- Dedicated by
- Her sister, June
- Recorded
- August 12, 2026
- Held until
- August 12, 2027
When this dedication ends, Menkib becomes available again. Want it? Put the date in your calendar.
Menkib at a glance
- Constellation
- Perseus
- Other name
- ξ Per
- Catalogue number
- HIP 18614
- Distance
- ≈ 1,490 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.04 naked-eye
- Star type
- O7 III
- Colour
- blue
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 03h 58m 58s
- Declination
- +35° 47′ 28″
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 Menkib?
Menkib is a blue giant. Its surface runs over 30,000°C at the surface, hot enough that it glows blue rather than white. 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 star still in the steady part of its life would burn for a few million 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
Menkib is about 1,490 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 536. 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 does the name Menkib mean?
Menkib can refer to the following stars (the name derives from the Arabic منكب mankib, meaning "shoulder"): * Menkib, the proper name approved by the International Astronomical Union for the star Xi Persei, in the constellation of Perseus.
Name origin from English Wikipedia. AsterNym does not invent an etymology where none is recorded, and most stars in this catalogue have none: they carry modern names, or a catalogue designation and nothing older.
Where can you see Menkib?
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 54°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 36°N. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.04 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Menkib belongs to Perseus.
What does Menkib mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Menkib, 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, Menkib stands at 4° Gemini at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 25 May 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.
Frequently asked questions about Menkib
- What does Menkib mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Menkib. Projected onto the zodiac, Menkib stands at 4° Gemini, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 25 May.
- Is Menkib the brightest star?
- Menkib shines at magnitude 4.04 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Menkib?
- Menkib is approximately 1,490 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 1,490 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Menkib?
- Menkib is part of Perseus.
- Can everyone see Menkib?
- 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 54°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 36°N. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.04 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Menkib an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Menkib 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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