Table of Contents
This is an old revision of the document!
5. Universal database
I am not talking about UDB, but about the databases containing all information of the universe.
“You can discover traces of the history of astronomy scattered in the names of the objects astronomers discuss – a history that starts with the mythological interpretation of the sky echoed in constellation names, and that continues to an era when comets are named after spacecraft and quasars after radio telescopes.” — Chromey
1. Naming stars
The Iranian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (903–86) gave proper names in Arabic to almost a thousand stars listed within the 48 ancient constellations formalized by Ptolemy. The list was given in the famous book titled The Book of Fixed Stars. Many modern English names are derived from the al-Sufi names. A very well-known example is Betelgeuse (Yad al-Jawzā).