The AsterNym star registry
Pherkad
Pherkad: the white star of Ursa Minor
white · Ursa Minor · γ UMi
Pherkad is a white star, burning hotter than our own Sun in the constellation Ursa Minor, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.05 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Pherkad 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
Pherkad at a glance
- Constellation
- Ursa Minor
- Other name
- γ UMi
- Catalogue number
- HIP 75097
- Distance
- ≈ 480 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 3.05 naked-eye
- Star type
- A3 II-III
- Colour
- white
- Best seen from
- The far northern sky
- Right ascension
- 15h 20m 44s
- Declination
- +71° 50′ 02″
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 Pherkad?
Pherkad is a white giant. Its surface runs around 7,500 to 10,000°C, hot enough to look white or blue-white to the eye. 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.
Its colour is not the whole story. A white star still in the steady part of its life would burn for about a thousand million years. This one is past that stage, and it is cool at the surface because it has swollen outward, not because it was born this way.
It is a giant, which is what a star becomes when it exhausts the hydrogen in its core. It has swollen outward and cooled at the surface, and it is now brighter than it ever was as a young star. The Sun will do this too, in about five thousand million years.
The light you are looking at is old
Pherkad is about 480 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1546. 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 Pherkad mean?
Gamma Ursae Minoris bore the traditional name Pherkad, which derived from the Arabic فرقد farqad "calf", short for aḫfa al farkadayn "the dim one of the two calves", that is Pherkad and Kochab (the full name Ahfa al Farkadain is traditionally applied to Zeta Ursae Minoris).
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 Pherkad dedication represent?
Pherkad 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 Ursa Minor in the sky.”
Where can you see Pherkad?
It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 18°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 72°N. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.05 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Pherkad belongs to Ursa Minor.
What does Pherkad mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Pherkad, 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, Pherkad stands at 21° Leo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 11 August 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 Pherkad 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 Pherkad →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Pherkad dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Pherkad's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Pherkad keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Pherkad
- What does Pherkad mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Pherkad. Projected onto the zodiac, Pherkad stands at 21° Leo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 11 August.
- Is Pherkad the brightest star?
- Pherkad shines at magnitude 3.05 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Pherkad?
- Pherkad is approximately 480 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 480 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Pherkad?
- Pherkad is part of Ursa Minor.
- Can everyone see Pherkad?
- It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 18°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 72°N. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.05 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Pherkad an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Pherkad 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
