The AsterNym star registry
Yaqana
Yaqana: the blue-white star of Norma
blue-white · Norma · ε Nor
Yaqana is a blue-white star, the colour of the hottest, youngest suns in the constellation Norma, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.52 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Yaqana 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
Yaqana at a glance
- Constellation
- Norma
- Other name
- ε Nor
- Catalogue number
- HIP 80582
- Distance
- ≈ 530 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.52 naked-eye
- Star type
- B4V
- Colour
- blue-white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 16h 27m 11s
- Declination
- −47° 33′ 17″
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 Yaqana?
Yaqana is a blue-white main-sequence star. 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.
It is spending its fuel at a rate the Sun never will. Most of the bright stars in familiar constellations are this kind, which is why the night sky looks younger and hotter than the average star actually is.
A star of this class gets tens of millions of years, against the Sun's ten thousand million.
It is a main-sequence star, which despite the word dwarf simply means it is in the long stable middle of its life, fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun is doing now.
Yaqana 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
Yaqana is about 530 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1496. 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 could a Yaqana dedication represent?
Yaqana 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 Norma in the sky.”
Where can you see Yaqana?
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 42°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 48°S. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.52 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Yaqana belongs to Norma, where it is the brightest star.
What does Yaqana mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Yaqana, 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, Yaqana stands at 12° Sagittarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 2 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.
Dedicate Yaqana 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 Yaqana →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Yaqana dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Yaqana's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Yaqana keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Yaqana
- What does Yaqana mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Yaqana. Projected onto the zodiac, Yaqana stands at 12° Sagittarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 2 December.
- Is Yaqana the brightest star?
- Yaqana shines at magnitude 4.52 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Yaqana?
- Yaqana is approximately 530 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 530 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Yaqana?
- Yaqana is the brightest star in Norma.
- Can everyone see Yaqana?
- 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 42°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 48°S. It stands highest at midnight in May, so May and June evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.52 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Yaqana an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Yaqana 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.
Explore nearby stars
