Tepennekhet, painted as a yellow-white star

The AsterNym star registry

Tepennekhet

Tepennekhet: the yellow-white star of Equuleus

yellow-white · Equuleus · δ Equ

Tepennekhet is a yellow-white star, a near cousin of our own Sun's colour in the constellation Equuleus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.49 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.

Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Tepennekhet 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

Tepennekhet at a glance

Constellation
Equuleus
Other name
δ Equ
Catalogue number
HIP 104858
Distance
≈ 60 light-years
Brightness
Magnitude 4.49 naked-eye
Star type
F5V+...
Colour
yellow-white
Best seen from
Almost everywhere on Earth
Right ascension
21h 14m 29s
Declination
+10° 00′ 25″

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 Tepennekhet?

Tepennekhet is a yellow-white main-sequence star. Its surface runs about 6,000 to 7,500°C, a shade hotter than the Sun. 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.

A little brighter and a little shorter-lived than the Sun, and near the edge of the range where a planet could plausibly hold liquid water for long enough to matter.

A star of this class gets two to four thousand million years.

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.

Tepennekhet moves noticeably against the background sky, about 31 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 Tepennekhet left in 1966, 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 Tepennekhet dedication represent?

Tepennekhet 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 Equuleus in the sky.”

Dedicate Tepennekhet →

Where can you see Tepennekhet?

It sits 10° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 80°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 10°N. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.49 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.

Tepennekhet belongs to Equuleus.

What does Tepennekhet mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Tepennekhet, 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, Tepennekhet stands at 24° Aquarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 12 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 Tepennekhet 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 Tepennekhet →

Real star · your message · a page to share

Your Tepennekhet dedication includes

  • Your chosen dedication name
  • Your personal message
  • Tepennekhet's real astronomical coordinates
  • A shareable dedication page
  • Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
  • An optional printable certificate and gift presentation

Tepennekhet keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.

Frequently asked questions about Tepennekhet

What does Tepennekhet mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Tepennekhet. Projected onto the zodiac, Tepennekhet stands at 24° Aquarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 12 February.
Is Tepennekhet the brightest star?
Tepennekhet shines at magnitude 4.49 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
How far away is Tepennekhet?
Tepennekhet is approximately 60 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 60 years ago.
Which constellation contains Tepennekhet?
Tepennekhet is part of Equuleus.
Can everyone see Tepennekhet?
It sits 10° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 80°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 10°N. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.49 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Is dedicating Tepennekhet an official astronomical renaming?
No. Tepennekhet 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

The constellation Equuleus, its stars sized by brightness and coloured by spectral type
Equuleus, drawn from catalogued positions: brighter stars are larger, and the colours follow spectral type. North is up and east is left, the sky-chart convention, so it is mirrored against a map of the ground. The joining lines are one drawing convention among several; the IAU fixes the boundaries, not the figure.
AsterNym dedications are personal commemorative records: they are not recognized by the International Astronomical Union, do not change scientific catalogue names, and do not confer ownership of a star.