Friday, 11 January 2013

star - Epsilon Eridani and Sadira

All star names are unofficial. A few stars have ancient names (such as Sirius) all other stars are referred to by their position in a catalogue or star atlas.



As well as I can tell, Al Sadira means "the ostrich", or perhaps in context "The (riverbank) ostrich" indicating a type of tree that grows by rivers (baby name sites offer "lotus tree").



There may be a list of Arabic star names that lists this star as Al Sadira(h) but the name is not in common use and won't be recognised by most people.



The IAU name, Ran, from that of a Norse river goddess, is a recent innovation, and doesn't seem to be much used. The Bayer Designation "Epsilon Eridani" is by far the most well known.

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