dimanche 5 octobre 2008

Orion 14

γ, Slightly variable, 2, pale yellow.

Bellatrix, the Female Warrior, the Amazon Star, is from the translation, rather freely made in the Alfonsine Tables, of its Arabic title, Al Najīd, the Conqueror. Kazwini had this last, but Ulug Beg said Al Murzim al Najīd, the Roaring Conqueror, or, according to Hyde, the Conquering Lion heralding his presence by his roar, as if this star were announcing the immediate rising of the still more brilliant Rigel, or of the whole constellation. This Murzim occasionally appears in our day as Mirzam, which is also applied to both of the stars β in the two Dogs as heralds of Sirius and Procyon.
Al Sufi had Al Ruzam, which Hyde said was another of the very many Arabic words for the lion, but Beigel thought it also a reference to the camel, another roarer. Still it is well to remember in this connection Ideler's remark that "etymology has full play with a word which has not traveled beyond astronomical language," — a statement equally applicable to very many other star‑names.
Caesius cited Algauza from the name for the whole.
γ marks the left shoulder of Orion, and naturally shared the Arabs' Mankib, and the Hindus' Bahū, titles of the star α on the right shoulder of Orion and forearm of the Stag.
In Amazon River myth Bellatrix is a Young Boy in a Canoe with an old man, the star Betelgeuze, chasing the Peixie Boi, a dark spot in the sky near Orion.
In astrology it was the natal star of all destined to great civil or military honors, and rendered all women born under its influence lucky and loquacious; or, as old Thomas Hood said, "women born under this constellation shall have mighty tongues."
Its spectrum is Sirian in character, and indicates that it is receding from our system at the rate of about 5 3/4 miles a second.
δ, Double and slightly variable, 2.4 and 6.8, brilliant white and pale violet.

Mintaka, from Al Minṭakah, the Belt, is the first star seen in that portion of the rising constellation. Burritt has it Mintika.
Astrologers considered it of importance as portending good fortune.
It is about 23ʹ of arc south of the celestial equator, the components 53ʺ apart, at a position angle of 0°. The spectrum is Sirian, and the star seems to have very little motion either of approach or recession.
Burnham has discovered still another companion of the 13th to 14th magnitudes, one of the faintest ever seen near a brilliant star.

ε, 1.8, bright white.

Alnilam, Anilam, Ainilam, and Alnihan are from Al Niṭhām, or Al Naṭhm, the String of Pearls, or as Recorde said, the Bullions set in the middle of Orion's Belt.
It portended fleeting public honors to those born under its influence.
The spectrum is Sirian, and the star recedes from us at the rate of about 16 1/2 miles a second.
It is the central one of the Belt, culminating on the 25th of January.
ζ, Triple, 2.5, 6.5, and 9, topaz yellow, light purple, and gray.

Alnitak, or Alnitah, for this, the lowest star in the Belt, is from Al Niṭāk, the Girdle.
The spectrum is Sirian, and the star recedes from us about nine miles a second.
One of its components, 2ʺ.4 distant from the largest, at a position angle of 155°, was singularly missed by Sir William Herschel, but discovered by Kunowski in 1819, and seems of some nondescript hue about which observers do not agree. The elder Struve called it, in one specially manufactured word, olivaceasubrubicunda, "slightly reddish olive."

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