# Algorab in the birth chart: the star on the Raven's wing > Algorab in astrology: a star of Corvus in the middle of Libra, the Mars and Saturn nature Ptolemy gives the Raven, and how a conjunction is read. URL: https://kb.astroway.info/en/fixed-stars/algorab Algorab is one of the four stars that make up the small quadrilateral of Corvus, the Raven, a modest constellation of the spring sky. In the tropical zodiac it stands in the middle of Libra. Ptolemy does not describe it separately; he gives all the stars of the Raven the nature of Mars and Saturn, which places Algorab among the harder stars of the tradition. ## In the sky Corvus is a small constellation near Spica, and two of its stars, Algorab and its neighbour Gienah, point eastwards to [Spica](/en/fixed-stars/spica). The two look like a pair, but they are not related: Gienah is about 155 light-years away, Algorab about 86. Algorab itself is a genuine pair. The bright star is white, of class B9.5, on the border of class A, about two and a half times the Sun's mass and some 48 times its luminosity. Beside it a telescope shows a ninth-magnitude orange companion, a star of three quarters of a solar mass that takes at least 9,400 years to go round. The companion is young and still surrounded by dust left over from its formation; the system is thought to be less than about 110 million years old. Algorab lies about 12° south of the ecliptic. The Moon never covers it, and a conjunction by zodiac degree means a shared longitude, not a close meeting in the sky. Some astrologers check stars at this distance with [parans](/en/fixed-stars#parans) as well. ## Finding it from Ukraine Corvus is a spring constellation, and from Ukraine it never climbs high. From the latitude of Kyiv Algorab reaches only about 23° above the southern horizon at its highest, so a clear view to the south helps. It is best placed in the evening in April and May. The easiest way to find it is from Spica: low down and to the right of Spica (towards the west) sits the four-sided figure of the Raven, and Algorab is its upper left corner, the one nearest to Spica. In early October the Sun passes Algorab in the zodiac, and in the autumn weeks around that date the star is not visible. ## The name The name comes from Arabic *al-ghurab*, "the raven", the Arabic name for the whole constellation. According to Richard Hinckley Allen's *Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning* (1899), Algorab as the name of this particular star comes from the Palermo Catalogue, and the star sits on the Raven's right wing. The name of its neighbour Gienah comes from Arabic for "wing", from the phrase "the right wing of the raven". The two names have been shuffled between these stars over time, and Algorab once belonged to the star now called Gienah. The International Astronomical Union fixed Algorab for Delta Corvi in 2016. The myth explains why the Raven sits next to the Cup and the Water Snake. Allen retells Ovid's version: Apollo sent the raven with a cup to fetch water, the bird lingered at a fig tree until the figs were ripe, and then came back with a water snake in its claws and a lie in its mouth. As punishment it was fixed in the sky with the Cup and the Snake beside it. ## Nature according to Ptolemy In the first book of the *Tetrabiblos*, among the stars south of the zodiac, Ptolemy writes that "those in Corvus" are like Mars and Saturn. He does not single out any one star of the Raven, so Algorab takes the nature of the constellation as a whole. Mars stands for heat, force, conflict and the urge to act. Saturn stands for cold, weight, limits, delay and endurance. Together they make one of the harsher pairings in Ptolemy's list: energy that meets resistance, or determination that turns hard. Read this way, the pair calls for some caution, but it also suggests persistence: the Saturn side slows Mars down and gives it staying power. The overview explains [how these planetary formulas are read](/en/fixed-stars#nature). ## After Ptolemy Cornelius Agrippa, in the first book of his *Three Books of Occult Philosophy* (chapter 32), lists "the Wing of the Crow" as the ninth of the fifteen stars he takes from Hermes; it rules stones "of the Colour of the black Onyx", and burdock, henbane and comfrey among plants. In the second book (chapter 47) its talisman is the image of a raven, a snake or a man dressed in black, which "maketh a man cholerick, bold, couragious", and also brooding and given to evil talk, but which protects against the malice of men and spirits. The character Agrippa gives fits Ptolemy's Mars and Saturn closely. Modern lists usually identify Agrippa's "Wing of the Crow" with Algorab. Given how the Arabic names moved between the two wing stars, Gienah is a possible candidate too, and the source does not settle the question. Agrippa himself, in the second book (chapter 31), names both a right and a left wing of the Crow and gives both "the nature of Saturn and Mars", so on either reading the nature is the same. ## Conjunctions with planets and angles Algorab is used by [conjunction](/en/aspects/conjunction), with an orb of about 1° ([more on the orb](/en/fixed-stars#orb)). Two typical cases show how tradition reads it: - **Algorab with Mars.** A star of Mars and Saturn on Mars itself strengthens the planet's push and adds Saturn's hardness. Astrologers read it as stubborn, sustained effort, and also as a temper that is slow to cool. - **Algorab with the Moon.** The Moon describes feelings and habits. A Saturnine and Martial star here is read as emotional reserve and a tendency to dwell on worries, the "full of thoughts" side of Agrippa's description, balanced by inner toughness. These are shades, not verdicts. A planet conjunct Algorab is still the same planet in its sign, house and aspects, and the [limits of the method](/en/fixed-stars#limits) apply here as everywhere.