The AsterNym star registry
Shama
Shama: the warm orange star of Leo
warm orange · Leo · HD 99109
Shama 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 9.10 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Shama 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
Shama at a glance
- Constellation
- Leo
- Other name
- HD 99109
- Catalogue number
- HIP 55664
- Distance
- ≈ 163 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 9.10 telescope
- Star type
- K0
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 11h 24m 17s
- Declination
- −01° 31′ 45″
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 Shama?
Shama 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.
Shama moves noticeably against the background sky, about 24 arcseconds a century. The constellation it belongs to will not have quite this shape in ten thousand years.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Shama tonight left in about 1863, some 163 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 could a Shama dedication represent?
Shama 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.”
Where can you see Shama?
It sits 2° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 88°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 2°S. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 9.10 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Shama belongs to Leo.
What does Shama mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Shama, 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, Shama stands at 22° Virgo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 11 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 Shama 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 Shama →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Shama dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Shama's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Shama keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Shama
- What does Shama mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Shama. Projected onto the zodiac, Shama stands at 22° Virgo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 11 September.
- Is Shama the brightest star?
- Shama shines at magnitude 9.10 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Shama?
- Shama is approximately 163 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 163 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Shama?
- Shama is part of Leo.
- Can everyone see Shama?
- It sits 2° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 88°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 2°S. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 9.10 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Shama an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Shama 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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