The AsterNym star registry
Skat
Skat: the white star of Aquarius
white · Aquarius · δ Aqr
Skat is a white star, burning hotter than our own Sun in the constellation Aquarius, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.27 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Skat 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
Skat at a glance
- Constellation
- Aquarius
- Other name
- δ Aqr
- Catalogue number
- HIP 113136
- Distance
- ≈ 113 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 3.27 naked-eye
- Star type
- A2 V
- Colour
- white
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 22h 54m 39s
- Declination
- −15° 49′ 15″
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 Skat?
Skat is a white main-sequence star. 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.
These are the classic bright white stars. Sirius and Vega are both this kind, and they are the reason people describe stars as white when most of the galaxy's stars are actually red and too faint to see.
A star of this class gets roughly a thousand million years, a tenth of what the Sun gets.
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.
The light you are looking at is old
The light you can see from Skat left in 1913, which puts it roughly a lifetime ago. Nobody has invented anything since then that the light knows about; it has simply been travelling.
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 Skat dedication represent?
Skat 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 Aquarius in the sky.”
Where can you see Skat?
It sits 16° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 74°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 16°S. It stands highest at midnight in September, so September and October evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.27 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Skat belongs to Aquarius.
What does Skat mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Skat, 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, Skat stands at 8° Pisces at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 27 February 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 Skat 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 Skat →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Skat dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Skat's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Skat keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Skat
- What does Skat mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Skat. Projected onto the zodiac, Skat stands at 8° Pisces, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 27 February.
- Is Skat the brightest star?
- Skat shines at magnitude 3.27 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Skat?
- Skat is approximately 113 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 113 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Skat?
- Skat is part of Aquarius.
- Can everyone see Skat?
- It sits 16° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 74°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 16°S. It stands highest at midnight in September, so September and October evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.27 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Skat an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Skat 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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