The AsterNym star registry
Suhail
Suhail: the warm orange star of Vela
warm orange · Vela · λ Vel
Suhail is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Vela, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.21 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Suhail 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
Suhail at a glance
- Constellation
- Vela
- Other name
- λ Vel
- Catalogue number
- HIP 44816
- Distance
- ≈ 545 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.21 naked-eye
- Star type
- K4 Ib
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 09h 07m 59s
- Declination
- −43° 25′ 57″
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 Suhail?
Suhail is an orange supergiant. 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 is a supergiant, which means it has left the stable part of its life and swollen enormously. Put it where the Sun is and its surface would swallow the inner planets. Stars this size do not fade quietly; this one will end as a supernova, and on a human timescale that could be tonight or in a million years.
The light you are looking at is old
Suhail is about 545 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1481. You are not looking at the star as it is. You are looking at the star as it was, and there is no way to see it any other way.
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 does the name Suhail mean?
It bore the traditional Arabic name سهيل الوزن Suhail al-Wazn, but as a modern navigation star this was shortened to Suhail.
Name origin from English Wikipedia. AsterNym does not invent an etymology where none is recorded, and most stars in this catalogue have none: they carry modern names, or a catalogue designation and nothing older.
What could a Suhail dedication represent?
Suhail 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 Vela in the sky.”
Where can you see Suhail?
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 47°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 43°S. It stands highest at midnight in February, so February and March evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.21 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Suhail belongs to Vela.
What does Suhail mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Suhail, 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, Suhail stands at 11° Virgo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 31 August 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 Suhail 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 Suhail →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Suhail dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Suhail's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Suhail keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Suhail
- What does Suhail mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Suhail. Projected onto the zodiac, Suhail stands at 11° Virgo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 31 August.
- Is Suhail the brightest star?
- Suhail shines at magnitude 2.21 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Suhail?
- Suhail is approximately 545 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 545 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Suhail?
- Suhail is part of Vela.
- Can everyone see Suhail?
- 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 47°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 43°S. It stands highest at midnight in February, so February and March evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.21 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Suhail an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Suhail 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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