Dajiangjunbei

Not to be confused with Tian Dajiangjun (天大将军).

Dajiangjunbei profile card (CC BY Sadegh Faghanpour for IAU WGSN).

Dajiangjunbei is a modern star name in the IAU-Catalog of Star Names, adopted by WGSN in 2025. 天大将军, “Celestial Grand General” is an important constellation in ancient China. As the determinative star was already named, WGSN named the northernmost star "The Northern one of The Great General" (Dajiangjunbei).

Concordance, Etymology, History

Dajiangjunbei stickfigure (CC BY Sadegh Faghanpour for IAU WGSN).

Tian Da Jiang Jun (天大将军), “Celestial Grand General”, is a historical Chinese constellation. When WGSN aimed to resemble it among the IAU-star names, it was suggested to drop the term "tian" ("heavenly") due to brevity. The IAU-Style Guide proposes that names must not be longer than 16 characters. However, the star name resembling the Grand General-constellation needed a specifier as the natural star to be named, the determinative one, already had a name.

The term "Dajiangjun" appears in the names of various Chinese items (a truck of the Foton-brand, electronic element, ceramics company, etc.), not surprising given the "grand general" meaning.

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name was discussed by the IAU WGSN in 2025. WGSN chose to apply the name to the northernmost star in the constellation Tian Dajiangjun and append "bei" for the star name in the IAU-CSN.

Reference

• References (general)
• References (early modern)
• Ian Ridpath's website (Star Tales )