NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Star name change
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2005 Mar 30, 16:37 +1000
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2005 Mar 30, 16:37 +1000
While the sources quoted seem to agree Benetnasch and Alkaid are both
contractions of the same Arabic phrase, its not immediately obvious. I think
the article (the) is 'al' in Arabic, so Alkaid is a contraction of
'al Ka'id' ('the mourner', or something similar) and Benetnasch seems to be
a contraction of the extended phrase '(al Ka'id) Banat al Na'ash', and you
can choose from a few, not so different, translations of that.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]
> On Behalf Of Zvi Doron
> Sent: Wednesday, 30 March 2005 3:44 PM
> To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
> Subject: Star name change
>
> WWII texts refer to the trailing star of the big dipper as Benetnasch,
> whilst present day texts call it Alkaid. As star names have been around
> for
> many hundreds of years, I wondered who changed the name of this star, when
> and why?
