Birthday Star

From Neatorama:

Birthday Stars is a generator that will find a star whose distance matches your age in light years from earth. For example, if you are 28 years and 6 months old, it will find a star 28.5 light years away from earth. The light arriving now from “your” star was generated at the time of your birth. Light travels at over a billion kilometers per hour {wiki}, so these stars are very far away.

LINK

My Results:

Your Birthday Star:

Your birthday star is in the constellation Orion. It has the name π3 (Pi3) Orionis in Johann Bayer's Uranometria star catalog. It is also called 1 Orionis in the Historia Cœlestis Britannica of John Flamsteed and Edmund Halley. It is called NS 0449+0657 in the NStars database.

It has visual magnitude 3.19 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 4:49:50.4
Declination 6:57:40.6

This star is 26.3 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.

Your Birthday Star:

Your birthday star is in the constellation Eridanus. It has the name τ01 (Tau01) Eridani in Johann Bayer's Uranometria star catalog. It is also called 1 Eridani in the Historia Cœlestis Britannica of John Flamsteed and Edmund Halley. It is called NS 0245-1834 in the NStars database.

It has visual magnitude 4.46 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 2:45:6.2
Declination -18:34:21.2

This star is 45.6 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.

This is soooo coool

My birthday star is in the constellation Cancer. It has the name ρ (Rho) Cancri in Johann Bayer's Uranometria star catalog. It is also called 55 Cancri in the Historia Cœlestis Britannica of John Flamsteed and Edmund Halley. It is called NS 0852+2819 A in the NStars database.

It has visual magnitude 5.96 meaning that you could just see this star with the naked eye under the best viewing conditions. It is marked in the center of this star chart, at celestial coordinates (J2000 equinox):

Right ascension 8:52:35.8
Declination 28:19:50.9

This star is 41.0 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.

My birthday star is in the constellation Ursa Major. It is called 61 Ursae Majoris in the Historia Cœlestis Britannica of John Flamsteed and Edmund Halley. It is called NS 1141+3412 in the NStars database.

It has visual magnitude 5.31 meaning that you could just see this star with the naked eye under the best viewing conditions. It is marked in the center of this star chart, at celestial coordinates (J2000 equinox):
Right ascension 11:41:3
Declination 34:12:5.9

This star is 30.9 light years away...



Very cool, except I turned 31 3 weeks ago, so shouldn't it be a star that is 31 or 31.1 light years away???

Your Birthday Star:

Your birthday star has the common name Capella. It is in the constellation Auriga. It has the name α (Alpha) Aurigae in Johann Bayer's Uranometria star catalog. It is also called 13 Aurigae in the Historia Cœlestis Britannica of John Flamsteed and Edmund Halley. It is called NS 0516+4559 A in the NStars database.

[B]It has visual magnitude 0.7 meaning that it is one of the brightest stars in the sky!

(But of course!) :) [/B]

It is marked in the center of this star chart, at celestial coordinates (J2000 equinox):

Right ascension 5:16:41.4
Declination 45:59:52.8

This star is 42.2 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.

That is neat! When I saw the subject I was expecting another lame buy-a-star scam.

steve, you forgot the first rule in a crisis situation.

Your birthday star is in the constellation Pictor. It has the name β (Beta) Pictoris in Johann Bayer's Uranometria star catalog. It is called NS 0547-5103 in the NStars database.

It has visual magnitude 3.86 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 5:47:17.1
Declination -51:3:59.5

smurfalicious wrote:

Very cool, except I turned 31 3 weeks ago, so shouldn't it be a star that is 31 or 31.1 light years away???

There probably isn't one that is exactly that far away. Give it a few months, maybe you'll get a more accurate one. :)

This is a ripoff. I have the same birthday star as jester, and we weren't even born in the same month!

(Not that I mind sharing a star with you, jester. :cool: )

The temporal resolution isn't all that rigorous, is it?

"Your birthday star is in the constellation Bootes. It has the name τ (Tau) Bootis in Johann Bayer's Uranometria star catalog. It is also called 4 Bootis in the Historia Cœlestis Britannica of John Flamsteed and Edmund Halley. It is called NS 1347+1727 A in the NStars database.

"It has visual magnitude 4.5 meaning that you could just see this star with the naked eye under the best viewing conditions. It is marked in the center of this star chart, at celestial coordinates (J2000 equinox):
Right ascension 13:47:15.8
Declination 17:27:24.9"

And I know I dutifully filled in the change.

Your birthday star is in the constellation Crux. It has the name η (Eta) Crucis in Johann Bayer's Uranometria star catalog. It is called NS 1206-6436 in the NStars database.

It has visual magnitude 4.14 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 12:6:52.9
Declination -64:36:49.4

This star is 64.2 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.

OK. I'll bite. Just WTF is Johann Bayer's Uranometria star catalog.

lumberjim;374970 wrote:

Dude...your birthday star is right next to mine...

busterb;378216 wrote:

OK. I'll bite. Just WTF is Johann Bayer's Uranometria star catalog.

Its an old star atlas. There's others, like Flamsteed's and the New General Catalog (stuff in it is identified with the starting letters NGC) and Burnhams, and more.

I was gonna be a smart ass and say that it was something that you used to be able to order astronomy supplies out of before the Internet came along.

Thanks El.

That looks like Tau Bootis to me, 'spode.