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Talitha

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170. I'm an astronomy nerd - Talitha is a 3.1 magnitude star in UMa.

Wed Aug 13, 2025, 11:15 PM

Aug 13

It's at the tip of the front paw of Ursa Major, the Big Bear - the huge northern constellation that contains the Big Dipper.

Quite a number of years ago I participated in an Aurora study run by the University of Michigan. They listed several questions regarding the Auroral display being observed, and one of the questions was "What is the star closest to the horizon that you can still see through the Auroral glow?"

In the north, it turned out to be Talitha - I've liked the name ever since. IIRC, there's also a biblical reference to the name but my interest in it is purely astronomical.

BTW, thanks for starting this discussion PJMcK, very interesting!

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