The AsterNym star registry
Rana
Rana: the warm orange star of Eridanus
warm orange · Eridanus · δ Eri
Rana 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 3.53 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Rana 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
Rana at a glance
- Constellation
- Eridanus
- Other name
- δ Eri
- Catalogue number
- HIP 17378
- Distance
- ≈ 29 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 3.53 naked-eye
- Star type
- K0IV
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 03h 43m 15s
- Declination
- −09° 45′ 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 Rana?
Rana is an orange subgiant. 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 subgiant, caught in the short crossing between an ordinary life and a giant one. Its core has run out of hydrogen but its outer layers have not finished expanding, and astronomically this stage passes quickly.
Rana moves noticeably against the background sky, about 75 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
The light you can see from Rana left in 1997, which puts it roughly a lifetime ago. Nobody has invented anything since then that the light knows about; it has simply been travelling.
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 could a Rana dedication represent?
Rana 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 Rana?
It sits 10° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 80°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 10°S. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.53 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Rana belongs to Eridanus.
What does Rana mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Rana, 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, Rana stands at 20° Taurus at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 11 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 Rana 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 Rana →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Rana dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Rana's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Rana keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Rana
- What does Rana mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Rana. Projected onto the zodiac, Rana stands at 20° Taurus, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 11 May.
- Is Rana the brightest star?
- Rana shines at magnitude 3.53 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Rana?
- Rana is approximately 29 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 29 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Rana?
- Rana is part of Eridanus.
- Can everyone see Rana?
- It sits 10° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 80°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 10°S. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.53 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Rana an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Rana 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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