Preview. This is a sample dedication, shown so you can see what a dedicated star page looks like.
A dedicated star
Uñallamacha
blue-white · Scorpius · HD 155985
Dedicated to
Maya
by Her sister, June · August 12, 2026
“You were born on the brightest night of my life. Whenever you feel small, remember: there is a star that has carried your name since before you could read it, and it is still up there, still burning, still yours.”
This dedication
- Dedicated to
- Maya
- Dedicated by
- Her sister, June
- Recorded
- August 12, 2026
- Held until
- August 12, 2027
When this dedication ends, Uñallamacha becomes available again. Want it? Put the date in your calendar.
Uñallamacha at a glance
- Constellation
- Scorpius
- Other name
- HD 155985
- Catalogue number
- HIP 84556
- Distance
- ≈ 3,639 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 6.49 naked-eye
- Star type
- B0.5Ib
- Colour
- blue-white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 17h 17m 06s
- Declination
- −44° 46′ 43″
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 Uñallamacha?
Uñallamacha is a blue-white supergiant. Its surface runs somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000°C, which is what gives it a blue-white cast. 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. A blue-white star still in the steady part of its life would burn for tens 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 supergiant, which means it has left the stable part of its life and swollen enormously. Put it where the Sun is and its surface would swallow the inner planets. Stars this size do not fade quietly; this one will end as a supernova, and on a human timescale that could be tonight or in a million years.
Uñallamacha 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
Uñallamacha is about 3,639 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around -1613. 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.
Where can you see Uñallamacha?
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 45°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 45°S. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.49 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Uñallamacha belongs to Scorpius.
What does Uñallamacha mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Uñallamacha, 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, Uñallamacha stands at 21° Sagittarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 11 December 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.
Frequently asked questions about Uñallamacha
- What does Uñallamacha mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Uñallamacha. Projected onto the zodiac, Uñallamacha stands at 21° Sagittarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 11 December.
- Is Uñallamacha the brightest star?
- Uñallamacha shines at magnitude 6.49 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Uñallamacha?
- Uñallamacha is approximately 3,639 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 3,639 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Uñallamacha?
- Uñallamacha is part of Scorpius.
- Can everyone see Uñallamacha?
- 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 45°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 45°S. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.49 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Uñallamacha an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Uñallamacha 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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