MēxGāh (میخگاه)

MexGah (میخگاه), The Pivot of the place / The Pole Star, is the Persian name for the North Star.

Concordance, Etymology, History

Variants:

• Pahl. MēxGāh

Pahlavi Mēx ī Gāh, “the nail of the sky”, refers to Polaris, the North Star. In the Pahlavi texts, it was considered the commander-in-chief of the celestial army. Its cosmic adversary is Kēwān, the planet Saturn. In Avestan times, there was no Pole Star, but the area between the two Bears was associated to mərəzu-, “vertebra”, i.e. a cosmic peg, perhaps associated with two or more stars of the Draco constellation.

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name was discussed and approved by the IAU WGSN in 202x. As this star is already named ..., the WGSN chose ... (not to apply/ to apply the name to a neighbouring star/ to ...) in the IAU-CSN.

Reference

• References (general)
• References (early modern)