The AsterNym star registry
Speedy Mic
Speedy Mic: the warm orange star of Microscopium
warm orange · Microscopium · HD 197890
Speedy Mic is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Microscopium, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 9.34 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Speedy Mic 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
Speedy Mic at a glance
- Constellation
- Microscopium
- Other name
- HD 197890
- Catalogue number
- HIP 102626
- Distance
- ≈ 170 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 9.34 telescope
- Star type
- K0V
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 20h 47m 45s
- Declination
- −36° 35′ 41″
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 Speedy Mic?
Speedy Mic is an orange main-sequence 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.
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.
Speedy Mic drifts about 8.5 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 Speedy Mic tonight left in about 1856, some 170 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 Speedy Mic dedication represent?
Speedy Mic 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 Microscopium in the sky.”
Where can you see Speedy Mic?
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 53°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 37°S. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 9.34 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Speedy Mic belongs to Microscopium.
What does Speedy Mic mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Speedy Mic, 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, Speedy Mic stands at 4° Aquarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 23 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 Speedy Mic 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 Speedy Mic →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Speedy Mic dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Speedy Mic's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Speedy Mic keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Speedy Mic
- What does Speedy Mic mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Speedy Mic. Projected onto the zodiac, Speedy Mic stands at 4° Aquarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 23 January.
- Is Speedy Mic the brightest star?
- Speedy Mic shines at magnitude 9.34 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Speedy Mic?
- Speedy Mic is approximately 170 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 170 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Speedy Mic?
- Speedy Mic is part of Microscopium.
- Can everyone see Speedy Mic?
- 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 53°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 37°S. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 9.34 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Speedy Mic an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Speedy Mic 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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