The AsterNym star registry
Sargas
Sargas: the yellow-white star of Scorpius
yellow-white · Scorpius · θ Sco
Sargas is a yellow-white star, a near cousin of our own Sun's colour in the constellation Scorpius, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 1.86 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Sargas 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
Sargas at a glance
- Constellation
- Scorpius
- Other name
- θ Sco
- Catalogue number
- HIP 86228
- Distance
- ≈ 270 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 1.86 naked-eye
- Star type
- F1 II
- Colour
- yellow-white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 17h 37m 20s
- Declination
- −43° 00′ 09″
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 Sargas?
Sargas is a yellow-white bright giant. 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.
Its colour is not the whole story. A yellow-white star still in the steady part of its life would burn for two to four 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 Sargas tonight left in about 1756, some 270 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 also one of the brighter stars in the sky, which is why it carries a proper name at all rather than a catalogue number.
What does the name Sargas mean?
Another possible origin is Persian for Arrow Head سر گز.
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 Sargas dedication represent?
Sargas 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 Scorpius in the sky.”
Where can you see Sargas?
It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 47°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 43°S. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.86 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Sargas belongs to Scorpius.
What does Sargas mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Sargas, 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, Sargas stands at 25° Sagittarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 14 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.
Dedicate Sargas 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 Sargas →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Sargas dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Sargas's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Sargas keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Sargas
- What does Sargas mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Sargas. Projected onto the zodiac, Sargas stands at 25° Sagittarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 14 December.
- Is Sargas the brightest star?
- Sargas shines at magnitude 1.86 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Sargas?
- Sargas is approximately 270 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 270 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Sargas?
- Sargas is part of Scorpius.
- Can everyone see Sargas?
- It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 47°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 43°S. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.86 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Sargas an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Sargas 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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