Dorado

The modern map of the IAU-constellation Dorado (S&T graphics)

One of the 88 official constellations. There is no need to translate the term because "Dorado" already is a modern (not Latin) word and used in many languages to designate a specific sort of fish. For further explanation, "Dorado, the Dolphinfish" would work in English. The Spanish term "dorado" literally means "golden", and it has been used for various type of fish in the past. Given this translation, the constellation name has sometimes been translated as "Goldfish", although the Spanish term always designated exotic fish species from the "new worlds".

Etymology and History

de Houtman (1603) "den Dorado". screenshot of star catalogue.

Dorado, the Dolphinfish, has been invented by Pieter Keyser and Frederik de Houtman on their journey to Indonesia (later called "Dutch Indies") 1592-1594. Their catalogue of southern stars was published by de Houtman in 1603 as an appendix to a dictionary of the Malaysian (and other) language(s). Before the publication of the star catalogue, de Houtman shared his data with Petrus Plancius, who had actually commissioned this work. Even in the 1590s, Plancius had worked with this material and his celestial globe of 1598 already displayed paintings of the newly invented constellations in the south, and so did Johann Bayer's Uranometria (1603).

Species of Fish

Following Dekker (1987), Ridpath (supported by van Gent) argues that the dorado in the sky hunts the flying fish (Volans), and that the Dutch explorer might have observed such a hunt on their journey (cf. BBC Earth documentation, also see Maas 1924).

Despite translating the Spanish term "dorado" (golden), historical Spanish and other European languages never designated any species of goldfish (small freshwater pet fish) with the term.

In biology, "Dorado" is the name of two sorts of fish: a freshwater fish in South America and a predatory fish that lives in the ocean. The ocean inhabitants, who had inspired de Houtman and Keyser, are today known as dolphinfishes with the scientific genus name "Coryphaena". The "Common Dolphinfish" (Coryphaena hippurus) is called Mahi Mahi, the Hawaiian language term for "very strong". In Persian, the word "mahi" (ماهی) happens to mean "fish" which is unrelated to the Hawaiian term. Although there are other names for the fish in some regions (e.g. "Lampuka" on the Mediterranean island of Malta and specifically "Ikan Lemadang" in Indonesia, where de Houtman and Keyser invented the celestial name), the Hawaiian term became publicly known. To avoid confusion with dolphins (the sea mammals that are unrelated to all species of fish), the term for the fish that is used in the public, e.g. in restaurants, is Mahi Mahi.

Modern transformations

The standard topic that Dorado hunts Volans can be traced throughout history. Yet, Bode and Goldbach show some anomalies: Bode wrote two books: one in German in 1772 as a very young man, training himself in astronomy ("Anleitung zur Kenntniß des gestirnten Himmels") and his famous atlas as senior astronomer at the Berlin observatory, Uranographia (1801). In 1772, he labels Dorado "swordfish" and in his Latin-labelled atlas consequently "Xiphias" (and not "Dorado" like everybody else). Goldbach (1799) reproduces Lacaille's map but labels it in German with the translation "swordfish" while in his own interpretation of the map (next page), he labels Dorado "goldfish".

• 

  Bayer (1603): Dorado hunts Volans

• 

  Doppelmayr's (1742) version of Dorado's hunt of Volans

• 

  Bode (1772) depicts Dorado hunting Volans next to Argo.

• 

  Bode (1772) labels Dorado "Schwerdt-Fisch" (swordfish)

• 

  Fortin's hunt of Volans by Dorado (1775-1795)

• 

  Lacaille's "Dorado" hunts Volans (1756, here repro 1799)

• 

  Lacaille's "Dorado" (1756), the German translation in Goldbach 1799 labels it "Schwerdfisch" (swordfish).

• 

  Goldbach's own version of Dorado hunting Volans next to Argo (1799)

• 

  Goldbach's own "Dorado" is labelled "Goldfisch" (goldfish) in German (1799).

• 

  Dorado with Reticulum and Pictor at Planisferio celeste (Carlos Simón 1894)

IAU Star Name Discussion

As the stars of Dorado are rather faint, no one has a proper historical name. The main star is α Dor (3.3 mag) and β Dor has 3.8 mag; all other stars are fainter than 4 mag.

As the official translation of the constellation name should be "Dolphinfish", it might be an idea to name the brightest star (α Dor) with that term (like "Peacock" for alf Pav). The WGSN has also discussed the Indonesia word "Ikan Lemadang" designating this species, and the term "Mahi Mahi" which is popular in English restaurant menues. Both names were rejected, the first being a bit mouthful, the second due to a mismatch of cultural origins of the term and constellation invention.

The group also discussed constellation names from Oceania such as:

• Kailou (Johnson et al.’s Austronesian star catalogue lists the "Dolphin constellation" Kailou from the Admiralty Is. and the Kankanaey asterism Sipat, both of which are identified with modern Delphinus or possibly Dorado. Kailou is certainly a fish name in the Manus. Still, it is the wrong type of fish (jack [Carangidae]), (see Akimichi and Sukiyama 2010, 16) and, once again, the name is more likely to apply to Delphinus rather than Dorado. If we apply "Kailou" here, we probably apply it to the wrong region in the sky. In other words, it is possible that Dorado was known as Kailou in Melanesia and Sipat in the Malay Archipelago, which leads to the suggestion of Kailou and/ or Sipat for stars in Dorado.

• "Sipat". According to Ambrosio (2010, 155): "Sipat and Tudong [another asterism] are mentioned in prayers for the offering of a chicken for someone who cannot control urination, and for the ceremony of kentan, where the rice seedlings are blessed before being planted." Vanoverbergh (1972, 91) identifies Sipat as "The Dolphin" whereas Tudong is "part of Andromeda, Pisces, Triangulum, and Aries". It is pretty clear that the Dolphin in question is Delphinus, not Dorado. "Sipat" in Tagalog does not mean Dolphin but rather "look carefully". It may have other meanings in other Filipino languages, but these are grounds for ruling out this term for stars in Dorado.

An alternative candidate name is "Xiphias" (swordfish), the alias for the constellation name "Dorado," as it appeared in Kepler's Rudolphine Tables (1627). The name "Xiphias" was also applied to the constellation by Halley (1678), Hevelius (1690), and Bode (1801). However, it means "swordfish" and therefore (mis)leads to another species of fish.

Weblinks

• BBC Earth (youTube) documenting the hunt of flying fish by the dolphinfish.
• "Coryphaena-hippurus" in Inaturalist.org