Imagine my surprise when I discovered that a star in the constellation Camelopardalis (the Giraffe) has been named Mago! Apparantly, the star designated HD 32518 was named after the Mago National Park in Ethiopia (noted for its giraffes), but a little research and some wild deductions later has led me to conclude that the star is, in fact, named after our very own Mago! And he very probably influenced its naming considering that the name was suggested by pupils at a school in the town of Neckargemünd, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany - not a million miles away from our Mago in Franconia. Surely not a coincidence?
HD 32518 Mago is almost 400 light years from Earth, and although bigger and more luminous than our sun, is barely visible to the naked eye from here. It is certainly undetectable by Camera (or it was back in August 2019 when I took this photo), so I've marked its approximate location with a golden circle.
Mago can be found at right ascension 05h 09m 36.7201s, declination +69° 38′ 21.8551° - or at the nape of the giraffe's neck not far from the star Alpha Camelopardalis, also known as Shǎowèi.
Camelopardalis is one of the northern most constellations and, therefore, is only partially visible (if at all) from south of the equator (sorry, Dinah). It is bordered by Ursa Minor and Cepheus to the north, Cassiopeia to the east, Perseus, Auriga and Lynx to the south, and Draco and Ursa Major to the west.
I shall be scouring the additions to the list of IAU-approved star names to see if any other Blogorati have managed to get themselves so immortalised.
