The AsterNym star registry
Mintaka
Mintaka: the blue star of Orion
blue · Orion · δ Ori
Mintaka is a blue star in the constellation Orion, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.23 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Mintaka 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
Mintaka at a glance
- Constellation
- Orion
- Other name
- δ Ori
- Catalogue number
- HIP 25930
- Distance
- ≈ 1,200 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.23 naked-eye
- Star type
- O9.5 II
- Colour
- blue
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 05h 32m 00s
- Declination
- −00° 17′ 57″
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 Mintaka?
Mintaka is a blue bright 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 sits between a giant and a supergiant: already expanded well beyond its original size, already past the steady middle of its life, and bright enough to be picked out from a very long way off.
The light you are looking at is old
Mintaka is about 1,200 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 826. 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 Mintaka mean?
The name Mintaka itself is derived from an Arabic term for 'belt': منطقة or manṭaqa.
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.
What could a Mintaka dedication represent?
Mintaka 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 Orion in the sky.”
Where can you see Mintaka?
It sits almost exactly on the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 90°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It crosses the zenith for observers on the equator itself. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.23 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Mintaka belongs to Orion.
What does Mintaka mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Mintaka, 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, Mintaka stands at 22° Gemini at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 12 June 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 Mintaka 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 Mintaka →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Mintaka dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Mintaka's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Mintaka keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Mintaka
- What does Mintaka mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Mintaka. Projected onto the zodiac, Mintaka stands at 22° Gemini, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 12 June.
- Is Mintaka the brightest star?
- Mintaka shines at magnitude 2.23 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Mintaka?
- Mintaka is approximately 1,200 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 1,200 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Mintaka?
- Mintaka is part of Orion.
- Can everyone see Mintaka?
- It sits almost exactly on the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 90°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It crosses the zenith for observers on the equator itself. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.23 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Mintaka an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Mintaka 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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