by johnnydeep » Fri Dec 17, 2021 3:48 pm
Ann wrote: ↑Fri Dec 17, 2021 8:46 am
I'm very late to the party, but...
Vega has also served as a woman's name, at least in Sweden.
Ann
Nice. Sadly, "Tora" doesn't seem to be the name of a star. I also found there's actually a list of "proper star names" currently approved by the IAU. Surprisingly - to me - there are only 336 as of August 2018:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proper_names_of_stars wrote:
These names of stars that have either been approved by the International Astronomical Union or which have been in somewhat recent use. IAU approval comes mostly from its Working Group on Star Names, which has been publishing a "List of IAU-approved Star Names" since 2016. As of August 2018, the list included a total of 336 proper names of stars.[1]
...
Of the roughly 10,000 stars visible to the naked eye, only a few hundred have been given proper names in the history of astronomy.[a] Traditional astronomy tends to group stars into constellations or asterisms and give proper names to those, not to individual stars. There are 88 constellations, which are only seen to the naked eye. They are listed in this order: A-Z.
Many star names are, in origin, descriptive of the part of the constellation they are found in; thus Phecda, a corruption of Arabic فخذ الدب (fakhdh ad-dubb, 'thigh of the bear'). Only a handful of the brightest stars have individual proper names not depending on their asterism; so Sirius ('the scorcher'), Antares ('rival of Ares', i.e., red-hued like Mars), Canopus (of uncertain origin), Alphard ('the solitary one'), Regulus ('kinglet'); and arguably Aldebaran ('the follower' [of the Pleiades]) and Procyon ('preceding the dog' [Sirius]). The same holds for Chinese star names, where most stars are enumerated within their asterisms, with a handful of exceptions such as
織女 ('weaving girl') (Vega).
In addition to the limited number of traditional star names, there were some coined in modern times, e.g. "Avior" for Epsilon Carinae (1930), and a number of stars named after people (mostly in the 20th century).
[quote=Ann post_id=319084 time=1639730794 user_id=129702]
I'm very late to the party, but...
Vega has also served as a woman's name, at least in Sweden.
[float=left][img3="Tora VEGA Holmström, Swedish artist from the 20th century."]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/Tora_Holmstr%C3%B6m.jpg/352px-Tora_Holmstr%C3%B6m.jpg[/img3][/float]
[clear][/clear]
Ann
[/quote]
Nice. Sadly, "Tora" doesn't seem to be the name of a star. I also found there's actually a list of "proper star names" currently approved by the IAU. Surprisingly - to me - there are only 336 as of August 2018:
[quote=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proper_names_of_stars
]
These names of stars that have either been approved by the International Astronomical Union or which have been in somewhat recent use. IAU approval comes mostly from its Working Group on Star Names, which has been publishing a "List of IAU-approved Star Names" since 2016. As of August 2018, the list included a total of 336 proper names of stars.[1]
...
Of the roughly 10,000 stars visible to the naked eye, only a few hundred have been given proper names in the history of astronomy.[a] Traditional astronomy tends to group stars into constellations or asterisms and give proper names to those, not to individual stars. There are 88 constellations, which are only seen to the naked eye. They are listed in this order: A-Z.
Many star names are, in origin, descriptive of the part of the constellation they are found in; thus Phecda, a corruption of Arabic فخذ الدب (fakhdh ad-dubb, 'thigh of the bear'). Only a handful of the brightest stars have individual proper names not depending on their asterism; so Sirius ('the scorcher'), Antares ('rival of Ares', i.e., red-hued like Mars), Canopus (of uncertain origin), Alphard ('the solitary one'), Regulus ('kinglet'); and arguably Aldebaran ('the follower' [of the Pleiades]) and Procyon ('preceding the dog' [Sirius]). The same holds for Chinese star names, where most stars are enumerated within their asterisms, with a handful of exceptions such as[b][color=#0000FF] 織女 ('weaving girl') (Vega)[/color][/b].
In addition to the limited number of traditional star names, there were some coined in modern times, e.g. "Avior" for Epsilon Carinae (1930), and a number of stars named after people (mostly in the 20th century).
[/quote]