The AsterNym star registry
Tianji
Tianji: the yellow-white star of Hercules
yellow-white · Hercules · ζ Her
Tianji is a yellow-white star, a near cousin of our own Sun's colour in the constellation Hercules, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.80 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Tianji 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
Tianji at a glance
- Constellation
- Hercules
- Other name
- ζ Her
- Catalogue number
- HIP 81693
- Distance
- ≈ 35 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.80 naked-eye
- Star type
- F9IV
- Colour
- yellow-white
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 16h 41m 17s
- Declination
- +31° 36′ 10″
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 Tianji?
Tianji is a yellow-white subgiant. 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 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.
Tianji moves noticeably against the background sky, about 58 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 Tianji left in 1991, 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 Tianji dedication represent?
Tianji 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 Hercules in the sky.”
Where can you see Tianji?
It is easy to see from most of the Northern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower southern latitudes, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 58°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 32°N. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.80 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Tianji belongs to Hercules.
What does Tianji mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Tianji, 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, Tianji stands at 1° Sagittarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 20 November 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 Tianji 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 Tianji →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Tianji dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Tianji's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Tianji keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Tianji
- What does Tianji mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Tianji. Projected onto the zodiac, Tianji stands at 1° Sagittarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 20 November.
- Is Tianji the brightest star?
- Tianji shines at magnitude 2.80 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Tianji?
- Tianji is approximately 35 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 35 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Tianji?
- Tianji is part of Hercules.
- Can everyone see Tianji?
- It is easy to see from most of the Northern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower southern latitudes, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 58°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 32°N. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.80 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Tianji an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Tianji 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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