Tapecue

Tapecue at a glance

Constellation

Carina

Other name

HD 63765

Catalogue number

HIP 38041

Distance

≈ 108 light-years

Brightness

Magnitude 8.10 telescope

Star type

G6IV/V

Colour

golden

Best seen from

The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes

Right ascension

07h 47m 50s

Declination

−54° 15′ 51″

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 Tapecue?

Tapecue is a yellow subgiant. 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 subgiant, caught in the short crossing between an ordinary life and a giant one. Its core has run out of hydrogen but its outer layers have not finished expanding, and astronomically this stage passes quickly.

Tapecue moves noticeably against the background sky, about 32 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 you can see from Tapecue left in 1918, 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 sits at the edge of what an unaided eye can do, so finding it is a deliberate act rather than an accident.

Where can you see Tapecue?

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 36°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 54°S. It stands highest at midnight in January, so January and February evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 8.10 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.

Tapecue belongs to Carina.

What does Tapecue mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Tapecue, 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, Tapecue stands at 29° Leo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 19 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.

Frequently asked questions about Tapecue

What does Tapecue mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Tapecue. Projected onto the zodiac, Tapecue stands at 29° Leo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 19 August.

Is Tapecue the brightest star?

Tapecue shines at magnitude 8.10 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.

How far away is Tapecue?

Tapecue is approximately 108 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 108 years ago.

Which constellation contains Tapecue?

Tapecue is part of Carina.

Can everyone see Tapecue?

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 36°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 54°S. It stands highest at midnight in January, so January and February evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 8.10 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.

Is dedicating Tapecue an official astronomical renaming?

No. Tapecue 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.

Explore nearby stars

• Canopus in Carina
• Miaplacidus in Carina
• Avior in Carina
• Aspidiske in Carina
• Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky