05 September 2006

5 September 2006

They moved my birthday star again. I haven't done well with Ophiuchus, probably because it is so big and doesn't look like anything to me, but at least this star is in the northern hemisphere so I might be able to find it.

Your birthday star is in the constellation Ophiuchus. It has the name ξ (Xi) Ophiuchi in Johann Bayer's Uranometria star catalog. It is also called 40 Ophiuchi in the Historia Cœlestis Britannica of John Flamsteed and Edmund Halley. It is called NS 1721-2106 A in the NStars database.

It has visual magnitude 4.39 meaning that you could see this star with the naked eye in good viewing conditions. It is marked in the center of this star chart, at celestial coordinates (J2000 equinox):
Right ascension 17:21:0.4
Declination -21:6:46.6

This star is 56.7 light years away, which means that the light we see from it today set off on its journey at about the same time that you were born. Come back in a month or two and your birthday star may change, as the light from more distant stars reaches Earth.

posted by Charlie at 17:44

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