The AsterNym star registry
Timir
Timir: the warm orange star of Ophiuchus
warm orange · Ophiuchus · HD 148427
Timir is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Ophiuchus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 6.89 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Timir 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
Timir at a glance
- Constellation
- Ophiuchus
- Other name
- HD 148427
- Catalogue number
- HIP 80687
- Distance
- ≈ 193 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 6.89 telescope
- Star type
- K0III/IV
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 16h 28m 28s
- Declination
- −13° 23′ 59″
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 Timir?
Timir 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.
Timir drifts about 3.7 arcseconds a century against the stars behind it. Slow by any human measure, and still enough that the sky your distant descendants see will not be the one in your photographs.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Timir tonight left in about 1833, some 193 years ago. Everything that has happened since, every person you have heard of from the last few centuries, happened while it was in transit.
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 Timir dedication represent?
Timir 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 Ophiuchus in the sky.”
Where can you see Timir?
It sits 13° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 77°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 13°S. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.89 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Timir belongs to Ophiuchus.
What does Timir mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Timir, 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, Timir stands at 7° Sagittarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 26 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 Timir 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 Timir →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Timir dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Timir's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Timir keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Timir
- What does Timir mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Timir. Projected onto the zodiac, Timir stands at 7° Sagittarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 26 November.
- Is Timir the brightest star?
- Timir shines at magnitude 6.89 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Timir?
- Timir is approximately 193 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 193 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Timir?
- Timir is part of Ophiuchus.
- Can everyone see Timir?
- It sits 13° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 77°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 13°S. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.89 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Timir an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Timir 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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