Uridim

Uridim at a glance

Constellation

Lupus

Other name

α Lup

Catalogue number

HIP 71860

Distance

≈ 465 light-years

Brightness

Magnitude 2.29 naked-eye

Star type

B1.5III

Colour

blue-white

Best seen from

The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes

Right ascension

14h 41m 56s

Declination

−47° 23′ 18″

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 Uridim?

Uridim is a blue-white giant. 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 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.

Uridim drifts about 3.2 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

Uridim is about 465 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1561. 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 is comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.

What does the name Uridim mean?

Allen described this star as having the Chinese name Yang Mun or Men (南門), meaning "the South Gate", in his work Star-Names and their Meanings.

Allen also suggested that the Babylonian name for the star was "Kakkab Su-gub Gud-Elim" (Star Left Hand of the Horned Bull).

Name origin from English Wikipedia. AsterNym does not invent an etymology where none is recorded, and most stars in this catalogue have none: they carry modern names, or a catalogue designation and nothing older.

Where can you see Uridim?

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 43°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 47°S. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.29 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.

Uridim belongs to Lupus, where it is the brightest star.

What does Uridim mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Uridim, 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, Uridim stands at 23° Scorpio at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 12 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.

Frequently asked questions about Uridim

What does Uridim mean in astrology?

The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Uridim. Projected onto the zodiac, Uridim stands at 23° Scorpio, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 12 November.

Is Uridim the brightest star?

Uridim shines at magnitude 2.29 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.

How far away is Uridim?

Uridim is approximately 465 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 465 years ago.

Which constellation contains Uridim?

Uridim is the brightest star in Lupus.

Can everyone see Uridim?

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 43°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 47°S. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.29 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.

Is dedicating Uridim an official astronomical renaming?

No. Uridim 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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