The AsterNym star registry
Rotanev
Rotanev: the yellow-white star of Delphinus
yellow-white · Delphinus · β Del
Rotanev is a yellow-white star, a near cousin of our own Sun's colour in the constellation Delphinus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.64 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Rotanev 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
Rotanev at a glance
- Constellation
- Delphinus
- Other name
- β Del
- Catalogue number
- HIP 101769
- Distance
- ≈ 101 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 3.64 naked-eye
- Star type
- F5IV
- Colour
- yellow-white
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 20h 37m 33s
- Declination
- +14° 35′ 42″
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 Rotanev?
Rotanev is a yellow-white subgiant. Its surface runs about 6,000 to 7,500°C, a shade hotter than the Sun. 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.
A little brighter and a little shorter-lived than the Sun, and near the edge of the range where a planet could plausibly hold liquid water for long enough to matter.
A star of this class gets two to four thousand million years.
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.
Rotanev drifts about 12.8 arcseconds a century against the stars behind it. Slow by any human measure, and still enough that the sky your distant descendants see will not be the one in your photographs.
The light you are looking at is old
The light you can see from Rotanev left in 1925, 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 Rotanev dedication represent?
Rotanev 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 Delphinus in the sky.”
Where can you see Rotanev?
It sits 15° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 75°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 15°N. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.64 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Rotanev belongs to Delphinus, where it is the brightest star.
What does Rotanev mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Rotanev, 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, Rotanev stands at 16° Aquarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 4 February 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 Rotanev 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 Rotanev →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Rotanev dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Rotanev's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Rotanev keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Rotanev
- What does Rotanev mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Rotanev. Projected onto the zodiac, Rotanev stands at 16° Aquarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 4 February.
- Is Rotanev the brightest star?
- Rotanev shines at magnitude 3.64 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Rotanev?
- Rotanev is approximately 101 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 101 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Rotanev?
- Rotanev is the brightest star in Delphinus.
- Can everyone see Rotanev?
- It sits 15° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 75°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 15°N. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.64 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Rotanev an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Rotanev 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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