The AsterNym star registry
Vindemiatrix
Vindemiatrix: the yellow star of Virgo
yellow · Virgo · ε Vir
Vindemiatrix is a yellow star in the constellation Virgo, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.83 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Vindemiatrix 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
Vindemiatrix at a glance
- Constellation
- Virgo
- Other name
- ε Vir
- Catalogue number
- HIP 63608
- Distance
- ≈ 110 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.83 naked-eye
- Star type
- G8 III
- Colour
- yellow
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 13h 02m 10s
- Declination
- +10° 57′ 33″
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 Vindemiatrix?
Vindemiatrix is a yellow giant. 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.
Its colour is not the whole story. A yellow star still in the steady part of its life would burn for about ten thousand million 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.
The light you are looking at is old
The light you can see from Vindemiatrix left in 1916, 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 does the name Vindemiatrix mean?
It bore the traditional names Vindemiatrix and Vindemiator, which come from Greek through the Latin vindēmiātrix, vindēmiātor meaning 'the grape-harvestress'.
This star, along with Beta Virginis (Zavijava), Gamma Virginis (Porrima), Eta Virginis (Zaniah) and Delta Virginis (Minelauva), were Al ʽAwwāʼ, which is Arabic for 'the Barker'.
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.
What could a Vindemiatrix dedication represent?
Vindemiatrix 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 Virgo in the sky.”
Where can you see Vindemiatrix?
It sits 11° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 79°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 11°N. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.83 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Vindemiatrix belongs to Virgo.
What does Vindemiatrix mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Vindemiatrix, 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, Vindemiatrix stands at 9° Libra at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 29 September 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 Vindemiatrix 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 Vindemiatrix →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Vindemiatrix dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Vindemiatrix's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Vindemiatrix keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Vindemiatrix
- What does Vindemiatrix mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Vindemiatrix. Projected onto the zodiac, Vindemiatrix stands at 9° Libra, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 29 September.
- Is Vindemiatrix the brightest star?
- Vindemiatrix shines at magnitude 2.83 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Vindemiatrix?
- Vindemiatrix is approximately 110 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 110 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Vindemiatrix?
- Vindemiatrix is part of Virgo.
- Can everyone see Vindemiatrix?
- It sits 11° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 79°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 11°N. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.83 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Vindemiatrix an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Vindemiatrix 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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