Noctua
Noctua, The Owl, is an obsolete European constellation. It was invented in the 19th century: Alexander Jamison depicted the early modern invention of a second bird on the extended tail of the Hydra snake as an owl. This way, he replaced the exotic bird from the "new worlds", the flightless Solitaire, with a species home in Europe ("old world").
Etymology and History
Mythology
Variants of the image
Noctua on the Celestial Atlas of Alexander Jamieson (1822).This file is from Wikimedia Commons and may be used by other projects.
Noctua in Sidney Hall - Urania's Mirror. plate 32 in Urania's Mirror, a set of celestial cards accompanied by A familiar treatise on astronomy ... by Jehoshaphat Aspin. London. Astronomical chart, 1 print on layered paper board : etching, hand-colored.
IAU Working Group Star Names
The name "Noctua" appeared on Jamieson's charts next to a star in the head of the owl, situated about halfway between Spica and pi Hya, a star labeled "X" (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Alexander_Jamieson_Celestial_Atlas-Plate_27.jpg ; see also Fig. 29.11 of "The Lost Constellations" by Barentine 2015). The brightest star in the vicinity of the head of Noctua, within about 3 degrees radius, is HR 5301 (ET Vir, HIP 69269).
HR 5301 (ET Vir, HIP 69269) is a previously unnamed naked eye star (Vmag=4.93; Hipparcos), a M2IIIa-type spectral standard giant star (Keenan & McNeil 1989), and a semi-regular variable. HR 5301 was given the variable star designation ET Vir in the 58th Name-List of Variable Stars (1972).
The name "Noctua" was discussed as a proper name for ET Vir (HR 5301, HIP 69269) in October 2024.
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.
