The AsterNym star registry
Sika
Sika: the golden star of Sagittarius
golden · Sagittarius · HD 181720
Sika is a golden star, warmer-toned than our Sun in the constellation Sagittarius, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 7.84 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Sika 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
Sika at a glance
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Other name
- HD 181720
- Catalogue number
- HIP 95262
- Distance
- ≈ 189 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 7.84 telescope
- Star type
- G1V
- Colour
- golden
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 19h 22m 53s
- Declination
- −32° 55′ 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 Sika?
Sika is a yellow main-sequence star. Its surface runs about 5,500°C, near enough the Sun's own surface temperature. 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.
This is the Sun's class. Looking at a star like this is the closest you get to seeing what our own star looks like from outside, which is a stranger thought than it first sounds.
A star of this class gets around ten thousand million years, and the Sun is halfway through its own.
It is a main-sequence star, which despite the word dwarf simply means it is in the long stable middle of its life, fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun is doing now.
Sika moves noticeably against the background sky, about 43 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 Sika 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 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 Sika dedication represent?
Sika 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 Sagittarius in the sky.”
Where can you see Sika?
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 57°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 33°S. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 7.84 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Sika belongs to Sagittarius.
What does Sika mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Sika, 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, Sika stands at 17° Capricorn at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 6 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 Sika 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 Sika →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Sika dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Sika's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Sika keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Sika
- What does Sika mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Sika. Projected onto the zodiac, Sika stands at 17° Capricorn, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 6 January.
- Is Sika the brightest star?
- Sika shines at magnitude 7.84 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Sika?
- Sika is approximately 189 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 189 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Sika?
- Sika is part of Sagittarius.
- Can everyone see Sika?
- 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 57°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 33°S. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 7.84 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Sika an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Sika 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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