Sansuna, painted as a yellow-white star

The AsterNym star registry

Sansuna

Sansuna: the yellow-white star of Sagitta

yellow-white · Sagitta · HAT-P-34

Sansuna is a yellow-white star, a near cousin of our own Sun's colour in the constellation Sagitta, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 10.31 it is a binocular or telescope object.

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

Sansuna at a glance

Constellation
Sagitta
Other name
HAT-P-34
Catalogue number
HAT-P-34
Distance
≈ 826 light-years
Brightness
Magnitude 10.31 telescope
Star type
F8
Colour
yellow-white
Best seen from
Almost everywhere on Earth
Right ascension
20h 12m 47s
Declination
+18° 06′ 17″

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 Sansuna?

Sansuna is a yellow-white star. 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.

The light you are looking at is old

Sansuna is about 826 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1200. You are not looking at the star as it is. You are looking at the star as it was, and there is no way to see it any other way.

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 could a Sansuna dedication represent?

Sansuna 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 Sagitta in the sky.”

Dedicate Sansuna →

Where can you see Sansuna?

It sits 18° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 72°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 18°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 10.31 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.

Sansuna belongs to Sagitta.

What does Sansuna mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Sansuna, 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, Sansuna stands at 10° Aquarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 29 January 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 Sansuna 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 Sansuna →

Real star · your message · a page to share

Your Sansuna dedication includes

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

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

Frequently asked questions about Sansuna

What does Sansuna mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Sansuna. Projected onto the zodiac, Sansuna stands at 10° Aquarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 29 January.
Is Sansuna the brightest star?
Sansuna shines at magnitude 10.31 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
How far away is Sansuna?
Sansuna is approximately 826 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 826 years ago.
Which constellation contains Sansuna?
Sansuna is part of Sagitta.
Can everyone see Sansuna?
It sits 18° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 72°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 18°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 10.31 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Is dedicating Sansuna an official astronomical renaming?
No. Sansuna 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 Sagitta, its stars sized by brightness and coloured by spectral type
Sagitta, 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.