Nenque

Nenque at a glance

Constellation

Phoenix

Other name

HD 6434

Catalogue number

HIP 5054

Distance

≈ 135 light-years

Brightness

Magnitude 7.72 telescope

Star type

G3IV

Colour

golden

Best seen from

The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes

Right ascension

01h 04m 40s

Declination

−39° 29′ 18″

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 Nenque?

Nenque is a yellow subgiant. 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.

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.

Nenque moves noticeably against the background sky, about 55 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 arriving from Nenque tonight left in about 1891, some 135 years ago. Everything that has happened since, every person you have heard of from the last few centuries, happened while it was in transit.

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.

Where can you see Nenque?

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 51°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 39°S. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 7.72 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.

Nenque belongs to Phoenix.

What does Nenque mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Nenque, 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, Nenque stands at 25° Pisces at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 16 March 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 Nenque

What does Nenque mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Nenque. Projected onto the zodiac, Nenque stands at 25° Pisces, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 16 March.

Is Nenque the brightest star?

Nenque shines at magnitude 7.72 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.

How far away is Nenque?

Nenque is approximately 135 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 135 years ago.

Which constellation contains Nenque?

Nenque is part of Phoenix.

Can everyone see Nenque?

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 51°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 39°S. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 7.72 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.

Is dedicating Nenque an official astronomical renaming?

No. Nenque 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

• Ankaa in Phoenix
• Wurren in Phoenix
• Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky