The AsterNym star registry
Natasha
Natasha: the warm orange star of Vela
warm orange · Vela · HD 85390
Natasha is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Vela, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 8.54 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Natasha 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
Natasha at a glance
- Constellation
- Vela
- Other name
- HD 85390
- Catalogue number
- HIP 48235
- Distance
- ≈ 106 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 8.54 telescope
- Star type
- K1V
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 09h 50m 02s
- Declination
- −49° 47′ 25″
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 Natasha?
Natasha is an orange main-sequence star. 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.
Nothing of this kind has ever died of old age, anywhere, because the universe is not old enough yet. Every one that has ever formed is still burning.
A star of this class gets twenty to fifty thousand million years, far longer than the universe has yet existed.
It is a main-sequence star, which despite the word dwarf simply means it is in the long stable middle of its life, fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun is doing now.
Natasha drifts about 6.5 arcseconds a century against the stars behind it. Slow by any human measure, and still enough that the sky your distant descendants see will not be the one in your photographs.
The light you are looking at is old
The light you can see from Natasha left in 1920, 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 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 Natasha mean?
It is the diminutive form of the Latin name Natalia.
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 Natasha dedication represent?
Natasha 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 Vela in the sky.”
Where can you see Natasha?
It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 40°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 50°S. It stands highest at midnight in February, so February and March evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 8.54 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Natasha belongs to Vela.
What does Natasha mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Natasha, 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, Natasha stands at 28° Virgo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 17 September 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 Natasha 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 Natasha →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Natasha dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Natasha's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Natasha keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Natasha
- What does Natasha mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Natasha. Projected onto the zodiac, Natasha stands at 28° Virgo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 17 September.
- Is Natasha the brightest star?
- Natasha shines at magnitude 8.54 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Natasha?
- Natasha is approximately 106 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 106 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Natasha?
- Natasha is part of Vela.
- Can everyone see Natasha?
- It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 40°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 50°S. It stands highest at midnight in February, so February and March evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 8.54 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Natasha an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Natasha 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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