Star Names

by John P. Pratt

Many of the brightest stars in the sky have proper names as well as designations by number or Greek letter as part of a constellation. Many people have spent much time in translating those star names from ancient sources. Also, there is usually a somewhat standard English pronunciation for many of the stars, which is often omitted from books. The summary given here accepts as the best source the work of Paul Kunitsch, taken from his work, kjkjkjkj. An older source is Allen, Star Names, Their Lore and Meaning. The letter (K) or (A) identifies which of these sources.

The first three columns of the following table contain standard constellation names, pronunciation and abbreviations accepted by nearly all astronomers. The last column is my personal preferred English name, which varies between astronomers and has never been standardized. Only ancient constellations have been included, most of the modern ones are too dim or too far south to be worth learning.

Pronunciation Guide: a: hat; ay: hay; ah: father; e: met; ee: meet; i: hit; ye: bye; o: hot; oh: oh; oo: boot; u: up; uh: her; you: you. Capital letters indicate the loudest syllable.

α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω

Proper Name	Abbr.	Pronunciation	Meaning	Info.