The AsterNym star registry
Shengong
Shengong: the white star of Scorpius
white · Scorpius · HR 6298
Shengong is a white star, burning hotter than our own Sun in the constellation Scorpius, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 6.05 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Shengong 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
Shengong at a glance
- Constellation
- Scorpius
- Other name
- HR 6298
- Catalogue number
- HIP 83100
- Distance
- ≈ 315 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 6.05 naked-eye
- Star type
- A3III
- Colour
- white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 16h 58m 52s
- Declination
- −37° 37′ 14″
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 Shengong?
Shengong is a white giant. Its surface runs around 7,500 to 10,000°C, hot enough to look white or blue-white to the eye. 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 white star still in the steady part of its life would burn for about a 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 is a giant, which is what a star becomes when it exhausts the hydrogen in its core. It has swollen outward and cooled at the surface, and it is now brighter than it ever was as a young star. The Sun will do this too, in about five thousand million years.
Shengong drifts about 3.9 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 Shengong tonight left in about 1711, some 315 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 Shengong dedication represent?
Shengong 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 Shengong?
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 52°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 38°S. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.05 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Shengong belongs to Scorpius.
What does Shengong mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Shengong, 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, Shengong stands at 17° Sagittarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 6 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 Shengong 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 Shengong →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Shengong dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Shengong's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Shengong keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Shengong
- What does Shengong mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Shengong. Projected onto the zodiac, Shengong stands at 17° Sagittarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 6 December.
- Is Shengong the brightest star?
- Shengong shines at magnitude 6.05 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Shengong?
- Shengong is approximately 315 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 315 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Shengong?
- Shengong is part of Scorpius.
- Can everyone see Shengong?
- 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 52°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 38°S. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.05 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Shengong an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Shengong 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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