The AsterNym star registry
Paikauhale
Paikauhale: the blue-white star of Scorpius
blue-white · Scorpius · τ Sco
Paikauhale is a blue-white star, the colour of the hottest, youngest suns in the constellation Scorpius, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.82 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Paikauhale 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
Paikauhale at a glance
- Constellation
- Scorpius
- Other name
- τ Sco
- Catalogue number
- HIP 81266
- Distance
- ≈ 474 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.82 naked-eye
- Star type
- B0V
- Colour
- blue-white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 16h 35m 53s
- Declination
- −28° 12′ 58″
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 Paikauhale?
Paikauhale 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.
Paikauhale 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
Paikauhale is about 474 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1552. 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 does the name Paikauhale mean?
Tau Scorpii and Sigma Scorpii together bore the traditional name Al Niyat (or Alniyat) derived from the Arabic النياط al-niyāţ "the arteries" and referring to their position flanking the star Antares, the scorpion's heart, with Tau Scorpii being the star to the south'.
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 Paikauhale dedication represent?
Paikauhale 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 Scorpius in the sky.”
Where can you see Paikauhale?
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 62°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 28°S. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.82 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Paikauhale belongs to Scorpius.
What does Paikauhale mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Paikauhale, 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, Paikauhale stands at 11° Sagittarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 30 November 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 Paikauhale 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 Paikauhale →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Paikauhale dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Paikauhale's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Paikauhale keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Paikauhale
- What does Paikauhale mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Paikauhale. Projected onto the zodiac, Paikauhale stands at 11° Sagittarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 30 November.
- Is Paikauhale the brightest star?
- Paikauhale shines at magnitude 2.82 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Paikauhale?
- Paikauhale is approximately 474 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 474 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Paikauhale?
- Paikauhale is part of Scorpius.
- Can everyone see Paikauhale?
- 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 62°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 28°S. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.82 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Paikauhale an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Paikauhale 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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