The AsterNym star registry
Misam
Misam: the warm orange star of Perseus
warm orange · Perseus · κ Per
Misam is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Perseus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.79 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Misam 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
Misam at a glance
- Constellation
- Perseus
- Other name
- κ Per
- Catalogue number
- HIP 14668
- Distance
- ≈ 113 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 3.79 naked-eye
- Star type
- K0III
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 03h 09m 30s
- Declination
- +44° 51′ 27″
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 Misam?
Misam is an orange giant. Its surface runs roughly 4,000 to 5,000°C, cool enough that the light carries a visible orange. 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. An orange star still in the steady part of its life would burn for tens of thousands 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.
Misam moves noticeably against the background sky, about 22 arcseconds a century. The constellation it belongs to will not have quite this shape in ten thousand years.
The light you are looking at is old
The light you can see from Misam left in 1913, which puts it roughly a lifetime ago. Nobody has invented anything since then that the light knows about; it has simply been travelling.
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 Misam mean?
The traditional name comes from the Arabic مِعْصَم miʽṣam 'wrist'.
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 Misam dedication represent?
Misam 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 Perseus in the sky.”
Where can you see Misam?
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 45°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 45°N. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.79 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Misam belongs to Perseus.
What does Misam mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Misam, 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, Misam stands at 27° Taurus at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 18 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.
Dedicate Misam 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 Misam →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Misam dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Misam's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Misam keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Misam
- What does Misam mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Misam. Projected onto the zodiac, Misam stands at 27° Taurus, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 18 May.
- Is Misam the brightest star?
- Misam shines at magnitude 3.79 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Misam?
- Misam is approximately 113 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 113 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Misam?
- Misam is part of Perseus.
- Can everyone see Misam?
- 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 45°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 45°N. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.79 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Misam an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Misam 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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