Thuban

Thuban 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 68756 (α Dra, HR 5291) in constellation Dra.

Etymology and History

The formation of this name begins with the sci-A name for γ Dra: ra's al-tinnin, "the Serpent's Head". In medieval times this was transliterated into Latin as raztaben, rahtaben, razcaben, and several other corruptions (eventually leading to the name for β Dra). By Renaissance times the form Rastaben had appeared, and this name was erroneously attributed, in its last part, to the Arabic word thu'ban, "serpent", rather than to al-tinnin (subsequently thu<ban was wrongly regarded as a sci-A name for the constellation Draco). Finally in recent times, the erroneous word, written as Thuban, was applied as a star name to α Dra.

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.