Sagarmatha, painted as a warm orange star

The AsterNym star registry

Sagarmatha

Sagarmatha: the warm orange star of Leo

warm orange · Leo · HD 100777

Sagarmatha is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Leo, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 8.42 it is a binocular or telescope object.

Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Sagarmatha 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

Sagarmatha at a glance

Constellation
Leo
Other name
HD 100777
Catalogue number
HIP 56572
Distance
≈ 162 light-years
Brightness
Magnitude 8.42 telescope
Star type
K0
Colour
warm orange
Best seen from
Almost everywhere on Earth
Right ascension
11h 35m 52s
Declination
−04° 45′ 21″

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 Sagarmatha?

Sagarmatha is an orange 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.

Sagarmatha drifts about 3.5 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 arriving from Sagarmatha tonight left in about 1864, some 162 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 sits at the edge of what an unaided eye can do, so finding it is a deliberate act rather than an accident.

What does the name Sagarmatha mean?

In April 2020, a group of Chinese mountaineers began an expedition from the Chinese side.

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 Sagarmatha dedication represent?

Sagarmatha 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 Leo in the sky.”

Dedicate Sagarmatha →

Where can you see Sagarmatha?

It sits 5° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 85°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 5°S. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 8.42 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.

Sagarmatha belongs to Leo.

What does Sagarmatha mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Sagarmatha, 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, Sagarmatha stands at 26° Virgo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 15 September 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 Sagarmatha 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 Sagarmatha →

Real star · your message · a page to share

Your Sagarmatha dedication includes

  • Your chosen dedication name
  • Your personal message
  • Sagarmatha's real astronomical coordinates
  • A shareable dedication page
  • Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
  • An optional printable certificate and gift presentation

Sagarmatha keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.

Frequently asked questions about Sagarmatha

What does Sagarmatha mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Sagarmatha. Projected onto the zodiac, Sagarmatha stands at 26° Virgo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 15 September.
Is Sagarmatha the brightest star?
Sagarmatha shines at magnitude 8.42 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
How far away is Sagarmatha?
Sagarmatha is approximately 162 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 162 years ago.
Which constellation contains Sagarmatha?
Sagarmatha is part of Leo.
Can everyone see Sagarmatha?
It sits 5° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 85°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 5°S. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 8.42 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Is dedicating Sagarmatha an official astronomical renaming?
No. Sagarmatha 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

The constellation Leo, its stars sized by brightness and coloured by spectral type
Leo, drawn from catalogued positions: brighter stars are larger, and the colours follow spectral type. North is up and east is left, the sky-chart convention, so it is mirrored against a map of the ground. The joining lines are one drawing convention among several; the IAU fixes the boundaries, not the figure.
AsterNym dedications are personal commemorative records: they are not recognized by the International Astronomical Union, do not change scientific catalogue names, and do not confer ownership of a star.