The AsterNym star registry
Meridiana
Meridiana: the white star of Corona Australis
white · Corona Australis · α CrA
Meridiana is a white star, burning hotter than our own Sun in the constellation Corona Australis, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.11 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Meridiana 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
Meridiana at a glance
- Constellation
- Corona Australis
- Other name
- α CrA
- Catalogue number
- HIP 94114
- Distance
- ≈ 125 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.11 naked-eye
- Star type
- A0/A1V
- Colour
- white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 19h 09m 28s
- Declination
- −37° 54′ 16″
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 Meridiana?
Meridiana is a white main-sequence 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.
It is a main-sequence star, which despite the word dwarf simply means it is in the long stable middle of its life, fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun is doing now.
Meridiana drifts about 12.9 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 Meridiana tonight left in about 1901, some 125 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 Meridiana dedication represent?
Meridiana 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 Corona Australis in the sky.”
Where can you see Meridiana?
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 52°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 38°S. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.11 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Meridiana belongs to Corona Australis, where it is the brightest star.
What does Meridiana mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Meridiana, 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, Meridiana stands at 14° Capricorn at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 2 January 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 Meridiana 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 Meridiana →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Meridiana dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Meridiana's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Meridiana keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Meridiana
- What does Meridiana mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Meridiana. Projected onto the zodiac, Meridiana stands at 14° Capricorn, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 2 January.
- Is Meridiana the brightest star?
- Meridiana shines at magnitude 4.11 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Meridiana?
- Meridiana is approximately 125 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 125 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Meridiana?
- Meridiana is the brightest star in Corona Australis.
- Can everyone see Meridiana?
- 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 52°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 38°S. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.11 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Meridiana an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Meridiana 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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