The AsterNym star registry
Ran
Ran: the warm orange star of Eridanus
warm orange · Eridanus · ε Eri
Ran is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Eridanus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.73 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Ran 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
Ran at a glance
- Constellation
- Eridanus
- Other name
- ε Eri
- Catalogue number
- HIP 16537
- Distance
- ≈ 10.0 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 3.73 naked-eye
- Star type
- K2V
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 03h 32m 56s
- Declination
- −09° 27′ 30″
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 Ran?
Ran 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.
Ran moves noticeably against the background sky, about 98 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
Light travels fast but not instantly, so what reaches your eye from Ran tonight set out in 2016. That is inside a single lifetime. Someone alive now was already alive when this particular light left.
Distance is also the honest limit of what a star can be to you. It is a real object, unimaginably large, and it does not know you exist. What it can be is a fixed point you agreed to attach a meaning to, which is the oldest use people have ever had for the sky.
It is comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.
What could a Ran dedication represent?
Ran 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 Eridanus in the sky.”
Where can you see Ran?
It sits 9° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 81°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 9°S. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.73 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Ran belongs to Eridanus.
What does Ran mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Ran, 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, Ran stands at 18° Taurus at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 8 May 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 Ran 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 Ran →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Ran dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Ran's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Ran keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Ran
- What does Ran mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Ran. Projected onto the zodiac, Ran stands at 18° Taurus, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 8 May.
- Is Ran the brightest star?
- Ran shines at magnitude 3.73 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Ran?
- Ran is approximately 10.0 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 10 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Ran?
- Ran is part of Eridanus.
- Can everyone see Ran?
- It sits 9° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 81°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 9°S. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.73 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Ran an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Ran 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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