Mirach
Mirach is a modern star name adopted by the International Astronomical Union in the IAU-Catalog of Star Names (IAU-CSN). Its origin is Arabic. It is the name of HIP 5447 (β And, HR 337) in constellation And.
Etymology and History
Ultimately from the Arabic word al-mi)zar, "the girdle" or "loin cloth", used in the Arabic Almagest in describing this star. The correct transliteration of the word in the Medieval Latin Almagest was mizar, which was occasionally misspelled as mirac, mirat, etc. These corruptions, taken as proper names for β And, were correctly attributed to al-mi)zar by Renaissance scholars. Subsequently one of the misspellings, "Mirach", gained more popularity over the correct "Mizar", to beome the preferred modern name.
Mythology
IAU Working Group on Star Names
The name was adopted by the IAU WGSN on 2016/06/30.
Weblinks
- Website of the IAU WGSN: https://exopla.net/
Reference
- References (general)
- 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.
