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A dedicated star
Rastaban
yellow · Draco · β Dra
Dedicated to
Maya
by Her sister, June · August 12, 2026
“You were born on the brightest night of my life. Whenever you feel small, remember: there is a star that has carried your name since before you could read it, and it is still up there, still burning, still yours.”
This dedication
- Dedicated to
- Maya
- Dedicated by
- Her sister, June
- Recorded
- August 12, 2026
- Held until
- August 12, 2027
When this dedication ends, Rastaban becomes available again. Want it? Put the date in your calendar.
Rastaban at a glance
- Constellation
- Draco
- Other name
- β Dra
- Catalogue number
- HIP 85670
- Distance
- ≈ 380 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.79 naked-eye
- Star type
- G2 II
- Colour
- yellow
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 17h 30m 26s
- Declination
- +52° 18′ 05″
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 Rastaban?
Rastaban is a yellow bright giant. Its surface runs about 5,500°C, near enough the Sun's own surface temperature. 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 yellow star still in the steady part of its life would burn for about ten 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 sits between a giant and a supergiant: already expanded well beyond its original size, already past the steady middle of its life, and bright enough to be picked out from a very long way off.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Rastaban tonight left in about 1646, some 380 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 is comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.
What does the name Rastaban mean?
This name, less commonly written Rastaben, derives from the Arabic phrase ra's ath-thu'ban "head of the serpent/dragon".
It was also known as Asuia and Alwaid, the latter from the Arabic al-ʽawāʼidh "the old mother camels".
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.
Where can you see Rastaban?
It is easy to see from most of the Northern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower southern latitudes, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 38°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 52°N. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.79 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Rastaban belongs to Draco.
What does Rastaban mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Rastaban, 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, Rastaban stands at 11° Sagittarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 1 December 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.
Frequently asked questions about Rastaban
- What does Rastaban mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Rastaban. Projected onto the zodiac, Rastaban stands at 11° Sagittarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 1 December.
- Is Rastaban the brightest star?
- Rastaban shines at magnitude 2.79 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Rastaban?
- Rastaban is approximately 380 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 380 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Rastaban?
- Rastaban is part of Draco.
- Can everyone see Rastaban?
- It is easy to see from most of the Northern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower southern latitudes, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 38°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 52°N. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.79 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Rastaban an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Rastaban 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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