The AsterNym star registry
Wezen
Wezen: the yellow-white star of Canis Major
yellow-white · Canis Major · δ CMa
Wezen is a yellow-white star, a near cousin of our own Sun's colour in the constellation Canis Major, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 1.83 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Wezen 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
Wezen at a glance
- Constellation
- Canis Major
- Other name
- δ CMa
- Catalogue number
- HIP 34444
- Distance
- ≈ 1,791 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 1.83 naked-eye
- Star type
- F8 Ia
- Colour
- yellow-white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 07h 08m 24s
- Declination
- −26° 23′ 36″
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 Wezen?
Wezen is a yellow-white supergiant. Its surface runs about 6,000 to 7,500°C, a shade hotter than the Sun. 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-white star still in the steady part of its life would burn for two to four 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 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.
The light you are looking at is old
Wezen is about 1,791 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 235. 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 also one of the brighter stars in the sky, which is why it carries a proper name at all rather than a catalogue number.
What does the name Wezen mean?
The traditional name, Wezen (alternatively Wesen, or Wezea), is derived from the medieval Arabic وزن al-wazn, which means 'weight' in modern Arabic.
In the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi Al Mouakket, this star was designated Thalath al Adzari (تالت ألعذاري - taalit al-aðārii), which was translated into Latin as Tertia Virginum, meaning the third virgin.
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 Wezen dedication represent?
Wezen 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 Canis Major in the sky.”
Where can you see Wezen?
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 64°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 26°S. It stands highest at midnight in January, so January and February evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.83 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Wezen belongs to Canis Major.
What does Wezen mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Wezen, 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, Wezen stands at 23° Cancer at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 13 July 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 Wezen 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 Wezen →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Wezen dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Wezen's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Wezen keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Wezen
- What does Wezen mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Wezen. Projected onto the zodiac, Wezen stands at 23° Cancer, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 13 July.
- Is Wezen the brightest star?
- Wezen shines at magnitude 1.83 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Wezen?
- Wezen is approximately 1,791 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 1,791 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Wezen?
- Wezen is part of Canis Major.
- Can everyone see Wezen?
- 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 64°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 26°S. It stands highest at midnight in January, so January and February evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.83 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Wezen an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Wezen 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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