The AsterNym star registry
Muliphein
Muliphein: the blue-white star of Canis Major
blue-white · Canis Major · γ CMa
Muliphein is a blue-white star, the colour of the hottest, youngest suns in the constellation Canis Major, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.12 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Muliphein 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
Muliphein at a glance
- Constellation
- Canis Major
- Other name
- γ CMa
- Catalogue number
- HIP 34045
- Distance
- ≈ 430 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.12 naked-eye
- Star type
- B8 II
- Colour
- blue-white
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 07h 03m 43s
- Declination
- −15° 38′ 00″
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 Muliphein?
Muliphein is a blue-white bright giant. Its surface runs somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000°C, which is what gives it a blue-white cast. 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-white star still in the steady part of its life would burn for tens 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 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.
Muliphein barely moves against the background sky, which is mostly a statement about how far away it is. For every practical purpose, including yours, it is fixed.
The light you are looking at is old
Muliphein is about 430 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1596. 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 could a Muliphein dedication represent?
Muliphein 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 Canis Major in the sky.”
Where can you see Muliphein?
It sits 16° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 74°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 16°S. It stands highest at midnight in January, so January and February evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.12 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Muliphein belongs to Canis Major.
What does Muliphein mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Muliphein, 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, Muliphein stands at 19° Cancer at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 9 July 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 Muliphein 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 Muliphein →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Muliphein dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Muliphein's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Muliphein keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Muliphein
- What does Muliphein mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Muliphein. Projected onto the zodiac, Muliphein stands at 19° Cancer, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 9 July.
- Is Muliphein the brightest star?
- Muliphein shines at magnitude 4.12 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Muliphein?
- Muliphein is approximately 430 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 430 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Muliphein?
- Muliphein is part of Canis Major.
- Can everyone see Muliphein?
- It sits 16° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 74°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 16°S. It stands highest at midnight in January, so January and February evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.12 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Muliphein an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Muliphein 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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