The AsterNym star registry
Shimu
Shimu: the warm orange star of Andromeda
warm orange · Andromeda · ζ And
Shimu is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Andromeda, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.06 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Shimu 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
Shimu at a glance
- Constellation
- Andromeda
- Other name
- ζ And
- Catalogue number
- HIP 3693
- Distance
- ≈ 189 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.06 naked-eye
- Star type
- K1II
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 00h 47m 20s
- Declination
- +24° 16′ 02″
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 Shimu?
Shimu is an orange bright giant. 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.
Its colour is not the whole story. An orange star still in the steady part of its life would burn for tens of thousands of millions of 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.
Shimu drifts about 13.0 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 Shimu tonight left in about 1837, some 189 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 comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.
What could a Shimu dedication represent?
Shimu 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 Andromeda in the sky.”
Where can you see Shimu?
It sits 24° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 66°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 24°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.06 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Shimu belongs to Andromeda.
What does Shimu mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Shimu, 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, Shimu stands at 20° Aries at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 10 April 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 Shimu 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 Shimu →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Shimu dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Shimu's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Shimu keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Shimu
- What does Shimu mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Shimu. Projected onto the zodiac, Shimu stands at 20° Aries, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 10 April.
- Is Shimu the brightest star?
- Shimu shines at magnitude 4.06 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Shimu?
- Shimu is approximately 189 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 189 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Shimu?
- Shimu is part of Andromeda.
- Can everyone see Shimu?
- It sits 24° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 66°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 24°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.06 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Shimu an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Shimu 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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