The AsterNym star registry
Xihe
Xihe: the golden star of Lyra
golden · Lyra · HD 173416
Xihe is a golden star, warmer-toned than our Sun in the constellation Lyra, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 6.04 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Xihe 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
Xihe at a glance
- Constellation
- Lyra
- Other name
- HD 173416
- Catalogue number
- HIP 91852
- Distance
- ≈ 455 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 6.04 naked-eye
- Star type
- G8
- Colour
- golden
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 18h 43m 36s
- Declination
- +36° 33′ 24″
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 Xihe?
Xihe is a yellow 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.
Xihe drifts about 6.2 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
Xihe is about 455 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1571. 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.
What could a Xihe dedication represent?
Xihe 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 Lyra in the sky.”
Where can you see Xihe?
It is easy to see from most of the Northern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower southern latitudes, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 53°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 37°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.04 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Xihe belongs to Lyra.
What does Xihe mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Xihe, 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, Xihe stands at 17° Capricorn at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 6 January 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 Xihe 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 Xihe →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Xihe dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Xihe's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Xihe keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Xihe
- What does Xihe mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Xihe. Projected onto the zodiac, Xihe stands at 17° Capricorn, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 6 January.
- Is Xihe the brightest star?
- Xihe shines at magnitude 6.04 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Xihe?
- Xihe is approximately 455 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 455 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Xihe?
- Xihe is part of Lyra.
- Can everyone see Xihe?
- It is easy to see from most of the Northern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower southern latitudes, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 53°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 37°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 6.04 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Xihe an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Xihe 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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