The AsterNym star registry
Tianfu
Tianfu: the warm orange star of Aquila
warm orange · Aquila · τ Aql
Tianfu is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Aquila, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 5.28 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Tianfu 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
Tianfu at a glance
- Constellation
- Aquila
- Other name
- τ Aql
- Catalogue number
- HIP 98823
- Distance
- ≈ 462 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 5.28 naked-eye
- Star type
- K0III
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 20h 04m 08s
- Declination
- +07° 16′ 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 Tianfu?
Tianfu is an orange giant. 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 giant, which is what a star becomes when it exhausts the hydrogen in its core. It has swollen outward and cooled at the surface, and it is now brighter than it ever was as a young star. The Sun will do this too, in about five thousand million years.
Tianfu barely moves against the background sky, which is mostly a statement about how far away it is. For every practical purpose, including yours, it is fixed.
The light you are looking at is old
Tianfu is about 462 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1564. 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 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 Tianfu dedication represent?
Tianfu 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 Aquila in the sky.”
Where can you see Tianfu?
It sits 7° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 83°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 7°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 5.28 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Tianfu belongs to Aquila.
What does Tianfu mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Tianfu, 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, Tianfu stands at 5° 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 Tianfu 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 Tianfu →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Tianfu dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Tianfu's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Tianfu keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Tianfu
- What does Tianfu mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Tianfu. Projected onto the zodiac, Tianfu stands at 5° Aquarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 23 January.
- Is Tianfu the brightest star?
- Tianfu shines at magnitude 5.28 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Tianfu?
- Tianfu is approximately 462 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 462 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Tianfu?
- Tianfu is part of Aquila.
- Can everyone see Tianfu?
- It sits 7° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 83°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 7°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 5.28 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Tianfu an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Tianfu 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
