The AsterNym star registry
Uklun
Uklun: the golden star of Centaurus
golden · Centaurus · HD 102117
Uklun is a golden star, warmer-toned than our Sun in the constellation Centaurus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 7.47 it is a binocular or telescope object.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Uklun 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
Uklun at a glance
- Constellation
- Centaurus
- Other name
- HD 102117
- Catalogue number
- HIP 57291
- Distance
- ≈ 129 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 7.47 telescope
- Star type
- G6V
- Colour
- golden
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 11h 44m 50s
- Declination
- −58° 42′ 13″
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 Uklun?
Uklun is a yellow main-sequence star. 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 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.
Uklun drifts about 9.4 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 Uklun tonight left in about 1897, some 129 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 Uklun dedication represent?
Uklun 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 Centaurus in the sky.”
Where can you see Uklun?
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 31°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 59°S. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 7.47 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
Uklun belongs to Centaurus.
What does Uklun mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Uklun, 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, Uklun stands at 0° Scorpio at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 20 October 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 Uklun 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 Uklun →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Uklun dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Uklun's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Uklun keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Uklun
- What does Uklun mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Uklun. Projected onto the zodiac, Uklun stands at 0° Scorpio, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 20 October.
- Is Uklun the brightest star?
- Uklun shines at magnitude 7.47 · a binocular-and-telescope star, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Uklun?
- Uklun is approximately 129 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 129 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Uklun?
- Uklun is part of Centaurus.
- Can everyone see Uklun?
- 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 31°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 59°S. It stands highest at midnight in March, so March and April evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 7.47 it sits below naked-eye reach; binoculars or a small telescope will find it.
- Is dedicating Uklun an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Uklun 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
