Author Topic: Real star names  (Read 5590 times)

Offline SmileyFace

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Real star names
« on: April 22, 2010, 11:28:36 am »
I've made an alternate planet list of real star names, since we currently don't know much about extra-solar planets. So who knows, perhaps some of these stars do have planets in their vicinity? Though I can't guarantee they're all easy to pronounce (Betelgeuse!), the names were all assigned by our fair species at some point. Therefore, someone must be able to pronounce them!

Anyway, they are of great interest to me, as an armchair astronomer ;D I pulled the list from here: http://www.naic.edu/~gibson/starnames/starnames.html. FYI: If you're interested in famous/bright stars, here they are: http://www.seds.org/Maps/Stars_en/ - everyone should recognise at least a few of these.

I had wanted to make a list with familiar galaxy names, too, but no dice. Most of them are NGC's or have unimaginative naming (Andromeda I, II, III etc... like turrets!). Anyway, if anyone wants to give that a shot there is a good link here: http://seds.org/messier/xtra/supp/rasc-g-n.html. And if anyone is happy with nebula names and such as well, try this: http://seds.org/messier/xtra/supp/d-names.html.

Edit: Re-uploaded list. Removed duplicates, similar sounding names and some/most of the hard to pronounce names.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2010, 07:50:03 am by SmileyFace »

Offline Mánagarmr

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Re: Real star names
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2010, 11:32:11 am »
Seriously? I love you! I started making one of these a few days back, but never really finished it. This is awesome work! Thanks a bunch! I'll download it as soon as I get home ^^
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Offline SmileyFace

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Re: Real star names
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2010, 11:48:28 am »
I was surprised no-one had done it yet! When I found out I could replace the planet/star names it was the first thing I wanted to do :)

There are 264 star names, from Acamar to Zubenhakrabi. These are drawn from all major constellations, and then some.

Offline Mánagarmr

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Re: Real star names
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2010, 03:54:40 pm »
Just a question, are those NASA designations (like Proxima Centauri) or folk-lore kinda names (like the Pole star)?
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Offline SmileyFace

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Re: Real star names
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2010, 10:53:02 pm »
Nah, it's a list of real/historical star names from a somewhat-accurate source. Many of them are well-known (i.e. Polaris, Rigel, Sirius, Mintaka) but the vast majority are not. So many stars out there.

The scientific naming would be quite boring. Centaurus would then be Alpha Centauri, Beta Centauri, Gamma Centauri, Theta Centauri and Kappa Centauri as opposed to Rigel Kentaurus, Hadar, Muhlifain, Menkent, Ke Kwan. The former is better for science, the latter is better for flavour.

Offline Doddler

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Re: Real star names
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2010, 01:05:30 am »
Very cool, I was thinking of doing something like this but never got around to it.  Most of it is born from the fact that current star names are practically unreadable. :P  I wasn't sure if it would be worth going for star names or minor planet names, since technically they are planets and not stars, but this works fine. :)

It's worth pointing out that Deneb, Marfik, and Scheat are on the list twice.

Offline SmileyFace

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Re: Real star names
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2010, 01:18:04 am »
Very cool, I was thinking of doing something like this but never got around to it.  Most of it is born from the fact that current star names are practically unreadable. :P [snip]
That they are, some of them... But since I can't pronounce some of the default names either I figured I'd go for historically unpronouncable names, hehe :D I'll fix the multiple entries tonight. Thanks!

Offline SmileyFace

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Re: Real star names
« Reply #7 on: April 24, 2010, 07:51:44 am »
Ok, I've uploaded the list again with the following changes:
- Removed duplicates.
- Removed similar sounding names.
- Removed some/most of the hard to pronounce names.

It should be a good deal more useable now. Feedback welcome!

Offline Inglonias

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Re: Real star names
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2010, 01:42:26 pm »
I had a really good list, but I lost it when I switched AI War to Steam. Thank you SO MUCH FOR THIS.

 

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