Uñallamacha

Authors: Youla Azkarrula, Eric Mamajek, Susanne M Hoffmann

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Yaqana, the She-Llama. The image depicts another llama, the mother-llama, breast-feeding her baby ("5") is no.4; Milky Way with Inka Dark Constellations (CC BY Jessica and Steven R. Gullberg).

Llama and baby llama at Wiñaywayna (CC BY Bex Walton)

Uñallamacha, The Baby Llama, is an Inka dark constellation. Uñallamacha is the baby llama and forms a super-constellation with Yaqana, the mother llama. As a constellation, he is represented in the area between Centaurus and Scorpius. As an Inka constellation, it has been used in South America.

Since 2026, Uñallamacha is also a modern IAU-star name for the star HIP 84556. To keep the heritage of this ancient constellation and the culture that created it, it was suggested to the WGSN to pick the faintest star in the area of these dark clouds that is still above the threshold of naked eye visibility: cultural names are given to the IAU to stars brighter than 6.5 mag in V-band.

Provenance, Etymology, History

Spelling Variants

• Uñallamacha
• Unallamacha (Simbad spelling of the star name without diacritics)
• Yacana (is the Spanish spelling, depreciated today to overcome colonialism)

Origin of Constellation

Llamas figure prominently in many aspects of Inka culture and this celestial figure was thought to animate the llamas on the Earth. Yaqana is a constellation much larger than Hanpatu or Yutu and dominates the Inkas’ dark constellation section of the Milky Way. Yaqana is situated between Centaurus and Scorpius. The prominent stars α and β Centauri serve as the llama’s eyes and as such are known as Llamacñawin, the “eyes of the llama.” Below Yaqana is a smaller dark constellation called Uñallamacha that is said to be a cria, a baby llama, suckling its mother.

These constellations are two of the dark constellations. According to oral traditions in the Qosqo area, Yaqana’s eyes (llamaqñawin) were Alpha and Beta Centauri, and Yaqana (a llama) with a long neck is swimming in a river of stars. It is easy to look the sky and see the constellation and also see the baby llama that breastfeeding.

This celestial figure was thought to animate llamas on the Earth and has strong significance in Inka culture.

Identifications

Depending on the season and context, the term "Yaqana" is identified with a dark cloud in the Milky Way. Her baby is also formed of a (smaller) dark cloud.

Sources, Transfer and Transformation of the Constellation

There are no specific stars mentioned in the constellation of the Uñallamacha, as it is a dark constellation.

Source		Identification
Llamacñawin	“eyes of the llama.” referring to Yaqana	α and β Centauri

Mythology

mnemonic tales and cultural significance

All HIP Stars within this constellation

Convex Hull for the stars inside baby llama (CC BY Youla Azkarrula).

Stars within the Constellation Area

id	Label	IAU design.	description	Vmag
1		HIP 84143		3.33
2		HIP 82729		3.62
3		HIP 82729		4.79
4		HIP 84033		5.08
5		HIP 81702		5.65
6		HIP 81733		5.68
7		HIP 84690		5.74
8		HIP 82716		5.84
9		HIP 82650		6.06
10		HIP 83481		6.06
11		HIP 83650		6.18
12		HIP 83216		6.22
13		HIP 81847		6.27
14		HIP 83594		6.27
15		HIP 82091		6.47
16		HIP 83202		6.49
17		HIP 84556		6.49

In 2026, WGSN adopted the name Uñallamacha for the star HIP 84556 (HD 155985, ALS 4013). The star has apparent V magnitude 6.49, and is an intrinsically luminous B0.5Ib "blue supergiant" star, whose Gaia DR3 parallax is consistent with a distance of approximately 1075 parsecs. Consistent with its adoption for the name of an Inka dark constellation, the star is strongly affected by intervening interstellar dust, with its light reddened by color excess E(B-V) = 0.49 magnitudes (see e.g. Paunzen et al. 2024), and attenuated in the V band by about 1.5 magnitudes.

References

• References (general)