The AsterNym star registry
Nunki
Nunki: the blue star of Sagittarius
blue · Sagittarius · σ Sgr
Nunki is a blue star in the constellation Sagittarius, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.05 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Nunki 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
Nunki at a glance
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Other name
- σ Sgr
- Catalogue number
- HIP 92855
- Distance
- ≈ 228 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.05 naked-eye
- Star type
- B2.5 V
- Colour
- blue
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 18h 55m 16s
- Declination
- −26° 17′ 48″
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 Nunki?
Nunki is a blue-white main-sequence star. 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.
It is spending its fuel at a rate the Sun never will. Most of the bright stars in familiar constellations are this kind, which is why the night sky looks younger and hotter than the average star actually is.
A star of this class gets tens of millions of years, against the Sun's ten thousand million.
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.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Nunki tonight left in about 1798, some 228 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 is comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.
What does the name Nunki mean?
It bore the traditional name of Nunki, which was an Assyrian or Babylonian name recovered by archaeologists and popularized by R.
In the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi al Mouakket, this star was designated Thanih al Sadirah, which was translated into Latin as Secunda τού al Sadirah, meaning second returning ostrich.
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 Nunki dedication represent?
Nunki 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 Sagittarius in the sky.”
Where can you see Nunki?
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 64°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 26°S. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.05 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Nunki belongs to Sagittarius.
What does Nunki mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Nunki, 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, Nunki stands at 12° Capricorn at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 1 January 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 Nunki 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 Nunki →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Nunki dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Nunki's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Nunki keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Nunki
- What does Nunki mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Nunki. Projected onto the zodiac, Nunki stands at 12° Capricorn, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 1 January.
- Is Nunki the brightest star?
- Nunki shines at magnitude 2.05 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Nunki?
- Nunki is approximately 228 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 228 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Nunki?
- Nunki is part of Sagittarius.
- Can everyone see Nunki?
- 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 64°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 26°S. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.05 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Nunki an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Nunki 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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