Nganurganity

The IAU catalogue's account

Nganurganity [ˈŋanuɾˌɡ̊aniɟ̊] is the "Jacky lizard" in the culture of the Boorong, a clan of the indigenous Maligundidj people of northwestern Victoria in Australia, who saw it as an ancestral figure who fights the moon, flanked by two wives, represented by stars on either side of him (δ CMa and ε CMa). The Moon is Mityan, the quoll. Mityan fell in love with one of the wives of Unurgunite and tried to lure her away. Unurgunite discovered Mityan’s trickery and attacked him, leading to a great fight in which Mityan was defeated. The Moon has been wandering the heavens ever since, the scars of the battle still visible on his face as maria. One of the wives (δ CMa) lies further away from Unurgunite and is closer to the Moon than the other wife (ε CMa). This is the wife Mityan tried to lure away. The name was listed as Unurgunite in Stanbridge(1857/61), for initial ng-, which does not occur in English, was typically ignored in transcription of that era. WGSN corrects the spelling.

Source language

Aboriginal/ Boorong

Reference

Stanbridge(1861) Stanbridge, W.E. (1857) On the Astronomy and Mythology of the Aborigines of Victoria. Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, Vol. 2, pp. 137-140.

Source: IAU Catalog of Star Names (IAU-CSN), Working Group on Star Names. The account is the IAU's own text and is quoted in full: it is published under CC BY.