Named star

Wezen

HIP
34444
Designation
25 Del CMa
Bayer designation
δ CMa
Visual magnitude
1.83
Constellation
Greater Dog
Name approved by the IAU
2016-07-20

The IAU catalogue's account

From the Arabic name al-wazn, for one of a pair of stars, the other one being hadari. Arabic authors ventured to identify these stars as α/β Cen or α/β Col, but exactly what two stars were originally intended, and the significance of their names, is unknown. As a common noun in Arabic, al-wazn means "the weight". "Wezen" was arbitrarily applied to δ CMa in recent times.

Source language
Arabic
Reference
Kunitzsch, Paul; Smart, Tim (2006). A Dictionary of Modern star Names: A Short Guide to 254 Star Names and Their Derivations (2nd rev. ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Sky Pub.

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.

From Kunitzsch & Smart

Layer of tradition
Indigenous Arabic
Ancient-layer signal
cue found
Source form
al-wazn
Pronounced
we' zan
Literal meanings
the weight
Periods of use
Recent / modern
Transmission notes
uncertain/unknown

Source: Kunitzsch & Smart, A Dictionary of Modern Star Names, 2nd ed. 2006, p. 23

Layer of tradition and ancient-layer signal are not the dictionary authors' judgement but a keyword reading of the entry's wording. “No simple cue found” means exactly that — the parser found none — not that the name is late.

The fields on this card were read off an OCR layer and are not checked against the printed page. The page number is given so the claim can be verified in your own copy.

Corpus chains passing through this star. Deviation is the cross-track angular distance of the third star from the great-circle plane.

  • Рыбы → Заяц → Большой ПёсДва Божьих народа → Нефилимы → Грядущий ЦарьWith: Alpherg, Arneb · Deviation 0,000054697°

Other named stars of this constellation: