Moriah

Moriah at a glance

Constellation

Delphinus

Other name

HAT-P-23

Catalogue number

HAT-P-23

Distance

≈ 1,192 light-years

Brightness

Magnitude 12.17 telescope

Star type

G0

Colour

golden

Best seen from

Almost everywhere on Earth

Right ascension

20h 24m 30s

Declination

+16° 45′ 44″

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 Moriah?

Moriah is a yellow star. Its surface runs about 5,500°C, near enough the Sun's own surface temperature. 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.

This is the Sun's class. Looking at a star like this is the closest you get to seeing what our own star looks like from outside, which is a stranger thought than it first sounds.

A star of this class gets around ten thousand million years, and the Sun is halfway through its own.

The light you are looking at is old

Moriah is about 1,192 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 834. 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 does the name Moriah mean?

For example, in the Greek Septuagint translation, these verses are translated as: * Genesis 22:2: "And he said, Take thy son, the beloved one, whom thou hast loved—Isaac, and go into the high land (Koine Greek: εἰς τὴν γῆν τὴν ὑψηλὴν), and offer him there for a whole-burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Correspondingly, Symmachus's Greek translation renders the Genesis place-name as "tês optasías" ("into the land of appearance/manifestation") and Jerome's Latin Vulgate similarly says "in terram Visionis" ("into the land of Vision").

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 Moriah?

It sits 17° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 73°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 17°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 12.17 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.

Moriah belongs to Delphinus.

What does Moriah mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Moriah, 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, Moriah stands at 13° Aquarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 1 February 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 Moriah

What does Moriah mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Moriah. Projected onto the zodiac, Moriah stands at 13° Aquarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 1 February.

Is Moriah the brightest star?

Moriah shines at magnitude 12.17 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.

How far away is Moriah?

Moriah is approximately 1,192 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 1,192 years ago.

Which constellation contains Moriah?

Moriah is part of Delphinus.

Can everyone see Moriah?

It sits 17° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 73°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 17°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 12.17 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.

Is dedicating Moriah an official astronomical renaming?

No. Moriah 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.

Explore nearby stars

• Rotanev in Delphinus
• Sualocin in Delphinus
• Aldulfin in Delphinus
• Dhanishta in Delphinus
• Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky