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I'm a fantasy and SF writer with an interest, but alas, not an expert knowledge of astronomy. I'm looking for names (not things like "NCG488", you know, ones like "Castor" or "Pollux") of stars in the following constellations for a story I'm working on:
*Pisces. You wouldn't BELIEVE the trouble I'm having finding the names of the stars in this constellation! But all that the search engine feature turns up is stuff about NGC488... a galaxy's scientific name, not the pretty or exotic sounding "original" Greek or Latin (or whatever) name. In the story I'm working on, each character has a weapon of some kind named after a star in their respective constellation. But I can't find anything to call Pisces' weapon. o.O At all. The closest I came to finding it was The "Southern Fish" 's "Fomalhaut". Which just doesn't work for me (and besides, it's not the same constellation).
*Gemini. I'm thinking of using either Castor or Pollux (since they are THE stars that truly represent the constellation), but it'd be nice to have options other than those two. :)
*Virgo. Other than Spica, I don't know any. That's not a bad name, but again, I'd like more options. :)
*Scorpius. Though "Antares" is a pretty cool name, I just wanted some other options. :) So don't worry too much about this one, just thought I'd add it in here since the only one I know of is Antares.
*Andromeda. I know of Alpheratz, but I don't know any others.
*Taurus. Only one I know of is Aldebaran. The name's not bad, though again, I'd like to have more options.
*Libra. I honestly can't remember a single star in Libra.
*Saggitarius. The only one I found... well, I can't remember what it was called, but it wasn't a name I wanted to use. :)
*Capricorn. Don't know any. It was shortly after my frustrations with Pisces began that I gave up and decide just to ask some nice, more well-informed astronomy fans, so I didn't find any good names for this one either :). I mean, I even looked on some ASTROLOGY pages, and I still couldn't find anything more than stars in Leo and Gemini (which, by the way, are two of only about four constellations that I have consistently found the names of at least one if not two good-sounding stars for, no matter where I look, the other ones being Scorpius and Virgo).
*Aquarius.
*Aries.
*Draco.
*Cepheaus (sp?)
*Cassiopeia.
Thankfully, I found two good names from Leo's constellation: Regulus and Denebola. :) So no worries there!
Remember, I'm wanting as many names as you guys can dig up, and excluding the stars I already found names for (Spica, Antares, etc.) outside of scientific number-based names.
On a side note... anybody here watch Stargate? Anybody else wondering why the spinoff didn't go to the Andromeda galaxy instead of Pegasus? isn't Andromeda closer? I guess in the show it might have life already (they did say the Ancients were trying to "spread life where there was none" or something). Though being (I don't know why) a fan of the Andromeda galaxy, again, I'm wondering why they didn't choose that one since I think it IS closer, right?
Which reminds me... aren't Pegasus and Andromeda both spiral galaxies? I thought spiral galaxies were supposed to be fairly rare (or at least that's what I've heard/read), but here's at least three (including our own) in the same Local Group. Odd.
Anyway, thank you to anyone who can help me out with by Constellation Conundrum! :)
-Jamie
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