The AsterNym star registry
Petra
Petra: the warm orange star of Aquila
warm orange · Aquila · WASP-80
Petra is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Aquila, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 11.27 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Petra 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
Petra at a glance
- Constellation
- Aquila
- Other name
- WASP-80
- Catalogue number
- WASP-80
- Distance
- ≈ 162 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 11.27 telescope
- Star type
- K7V-M0V
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 20h 12m 40s
- Declination
- −02° 08′ 39″
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 Petra?
Petra 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.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Petra tonight left in about 1864, some 162 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.
What does the name Petra mean?
Arabic raqama means "to mark, to decorate", so Rekeme could be a Nabataean word referring to the famous carved rock façades.
It nevertheless cautioned that sela simply means "rock" in Hebrew, and thence might not be identified with a city where it occurs in the biblical text in the book of Obadiah.
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 Petra dedication represent?
Petra 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 Aquila in the sky.”
Where can you see Petra?
It sits 2° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 88°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 2°S. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 11.27 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Petra belongs to Aquila.
What does Petra mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Petra, 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, Petra stands at 4° Aquarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 23 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 Petra 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 Petra →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Petra dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Petra's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Petra keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Petra
- What does Petra mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Petra. Projected onto the zodiac, Petra stands at 4° Aquarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 23 January.
- Is Petra the brightest star?
- Petra shines at magnitude 11.27 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Petra?
- Petra is approximately 162 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 162 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Petra?
- Petra is part of Aquila.
- Can everyone see Petra?
- It sits 2° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 88°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 2°S. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 11.27 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Petra an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Petra 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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