Bandaarr

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Revision as of 09:20, 1 October 2025 by Sushoff (talk | contribs)
Bandaarr, the Kangaroo, in Stellarium 2025 for the Kamilaroi Sky Culture. The star marked is zeta Aps, the star in the middle of the body is alf Tel.

Bandaarr, the kangaroo, is an Australian name for an asterism in the area of Telescopium, Apus, and Ara (the area south of the tail of Scorpius) from the Kamilaroi/ Euahlayi people.

Etymology and History

Bandaarr as drawn in the Kamilaroi Sky Culture of Stellarium by Robert S. Fuller and Ghillar Michael Anderson

Bandaarr is Kamilaroi/Euahlayi for Kangaroo, and this kangaroo is located under the belly of the Emu in the Milky Way, looking away from the Emu. Bandaarr is either a grey or red kangaroo, depending on the culture, and has significance in ceremony.[1]

Fuller (2014)[2] discusses etymology but does not identify any particular stars or groups of stars, and we can find no source online that identifies the stars.

In Stellarium it appears to be floating in Apus, Telescopium, and Ara, and the star ζ Aps is highlighted. SMH: Interesting point: in Stellarium, the star zet Aps is encircled - perhaps a typo? - on the other hand, the star zet Tel is in the middle of the body of the Stellarium drawing of the kangaroo... hm ... mysterious

Mythology

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name was discussed and approved by the IAU WGSN in 2023.

WGSN chose ... (not to apply/ to apply the name to a neighbouring star/ to ...) in the IAU-CSN.


Weblinks

Reference

  1. Robert S. Fuller and Ghillar Michael Anderson in Stellarium; printed in appendix of Hoffmann and Wolfschmidt (eds.): Astronomy in Culture – Cultures of Astronomy. Featuring the Proceedings of the Splinter Meeting in the Annual Meeting of the German Astronomical Society, Sept. 14-16, 2021., Reihe: Nuncius Hamburgensis 57, tredition, Hamburg & OpenScienceTechnology Berlin (cBook)
  2. Fuller, R. (2014) PhD thesis (http://www.aboriginalastronomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Fuller-Thesis.pdf)