The AsterNym star registry
Mpingo
Mpingo: the golden star of Cetus
golden · Cetus · WASP-71
Mpingo is a golden star, warmer-toned than our Sun in the constellation Cetus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 10.57 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Mpingo 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
Mpingo at a glance
- Constellation
- Cetus
- Other name
- WASP-71
- Catalogue number
- WASP-71
- Distance
- ≈ 1,158 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 10.57 telescope
- Star type
- G2
- Colour
- golden
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 01h 57m 03s
- Declination
- +00° 45′ 32″
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 Mpingo?
Mpingo 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
Mpingo is about 1,158 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 868. 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 could a Mpingo dedication represent?
Mpingo 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 Cetus in the sky.”
Where can you see Mpingo?
It sits 1° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 89°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 1°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 10.57 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Mpingo belongs to Cetus.
What does Mpingo mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Mpingo, 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, Mpingo stands at 27° Aries at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 17 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 Mpingo 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 Mpingo →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Mpingo dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Mpingo's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Mpingo keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Mpingo
- What does Mpingo mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Mpingo. Projected onto the zodiac, Mpingo stands at 27° Aries, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 17 April.
- Is Mpingo the brightest star?
- Mpingo shines at magnitude 10.57 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Mpingo?
- Mpingo is approximately 1,158 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 1,158 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Mpingo?
- Mpingo is part of Cetus.
- Can everyone see Mpingo?
- It sits 1° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 89°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 1°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 10.57 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Mpingo an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Mpingo 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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