The AsterNym star registry
Mothallah
Mothallah: the yellow-white star of Triangulum
yellow-white · Triangulum · α Tri
Mothallah is a yellow-white star, a near cousin of our own Sun's colour in the constellation Triangulum, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.42 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Mothallah 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
Mothallah at a glance
- Constellation
- Triangulum
- Other name
- α Tri
- Catalogue number
- HIP 8796
- Distance
- ≈ 63 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 3.42 naked-eye
- Star type
- F6IV
- Colour
- yellow-white
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 01h 53m 05s
- Declination
- +29° 34′ 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 Mothallah?
Mothallah is a yellow-white subgiant. Its surface runs about 6,000 to 7,500°C, a shade hotter than the Sun. 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.
A little brighter and a little shorter-lived than the Sun, and near the edge of the range where a planet could plausibly hold liquid water for long enough to matter.
A star of this class gets two to four thousand million years.
It is a subgiant, caught in the short crossing between an ordinary life and a giant one. Its core has run out of hydrogen but its outer layers have not finished expanding, and astronomically this stage passes quickly.
Mothallah moves noticeably against the background sky, about 23 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 Mothallah left in 1963, 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 Mothallah mean?
The system bore the traditional names Ras al Muthallah or Mothallah and Caput Trianguli derived from the Arabic رأس المثلث' raʼs al-muthallath "the head of the triangle" and its Latin translation.
In combination with Beta Trianguli, these stars were called Al Mīzān, which is Arabic for "The Scale Beam".
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 Mothallah dedication represent?
Mothallah 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 Triangulum in the sky.”
Where can you see Mothallah?
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 60°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 30°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.42 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Mothallah belongs to Triangulum.
What does Mothallah mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Mothallah, 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, Mothallah stands at 6° Taurus at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 26 April 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 Mothallah 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 Mothallah →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Mothallah dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Mothallah's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Mothallah keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Mothallah
- What does Mothallah mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Mothallah. Projected onto the zodiac, Mothallah stands at 6° Taurus, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 26 April.
- Is Mothallah the brightest star?
- Mothallah shines at magnitude 3.42 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Mothallah?
- Mothallah is approximately 63 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 63 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Mothallah?
- Mothallah is part of Triangulum.
- Can everyone see Mothallah?
- 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 60°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 30°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.42 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Mothallah an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Mothallah 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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