NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2020 Dec 28, 09:59 -0800
Rob van Gent, you wrote:
"η Argûs?
This star, now better known as Eta Carinae, indeed has no Hipparcos number but it does have a Tycho number (8626-2809-1) and was particularly bright in the 1840s."
Yes, indeed! Eta Argus or Eta Carinae, which was one of the brightest stars in the sky from 1837 until about 1857.
Even in the early 20th century, the nautical almanacs frequently listed all those stars now split up in Vela, Puppis, and Carina as members of the constellation Argo (or Argo Navis). Eta Argus was around magnitude 7 or 8, useless for navigation, when it was listed in these almanacs. That's navigation nostalgia at work! It's slowly rising in brightness in recent years, and, who knows, maybe it will have another "Great Eruption" or even "go supernova" as often suggested.
Rob, do you have any idea why the genitive Argûs has a circumflex over the "u"? Is (was) this a styling in "Modern Latin", too, or is it just a peculiar quirk in the typography for this defunct constellation? I haven't found any clues.
Frank Reed
