jeudi 25 septembre 2008

Scorpius 12

δ, 2.5.

Dschubba is found in the Whitall Planisphere, probably from Al Jabhah, the Front, or Forehead, where it lies.
In the Palermo Catalogue the title Iclarkrav is applied to a star whose assigned position for the year 1800 would indicate our δ. If this be the case, it may have been a specially coined word from the Arabs' Iklīl al ʽAḳrab, the Crown of the Scorpion; and this conjecture would seem justified by our previous experience of that catalogue's star nomenclature as seen in its remarkable efforts with α and β Delphini. Riccioli had Aakràb genubi.
δ was of importance in early times, for with β and π, on either side in a bending line, it is claimed for the Euphratean Gis-gan-gu‑sur, the Light of the Hero, or the Tree of the Garden of Light, "placed in the midst of the abyss," and so reminding us of that other tree, the Tree of Life, in the midst of the Garden of Eden. It was selected by the Babylonian astronomers, with β, to point out their 23d ecliptic constellation, which Epping calls Qablu (und qābu) sha rīshu aqrabi, the Middle of the Head of the Scorpion. The earliest record that we have of the planet Mercury is in connection with these same two stars seen from that country 265 B.C. In the lunar zodiac δ, β, and π were the Persian Nūr, Bright; the Sogdian and Khorasmian Bighanwand, Clawless; and the Coptic Stephani, the Crown.
In China the 2d‑magnitude ε, with μ, ζ, η, θ, ι, κ, υ, and λ, formed the 17th sieu, Wei, the Tail, anciently known as Mi and as Vi, μ being the determinant; but, although this Tail coincided with that part of our Scorpion, Brown thinks that reference is rather made to the tail of the Azure Dragon, one of the quadripartite divisions of the Chinese zodiac which lay here.
θ, a 2d‑magnitude red star, was the Euphratean Sargas, lying in the Milky Way just south of λ and υ, with which it formed one of the seven pairs of twin Stars; as such it was Ma‑a‑su. And it may have been, with ι, κ, λ, and υ, the Girtab of the lunar zodiac of that valley, the Vanant of Persia and Vanand of Sogdiana, all meaning the "Seizer," "Smiter," or "Stinger"; but the Persian and Sogdian words generally are used for our Regulus. In Khorasmia these stars were Khachman, the Curved. θ has a 14th‑magnitude greenish companion that may be in revolution around it, 6ʺ.77 away in 1897, at a position angle of 316°.9. See writes of this:
a magnificent system of surpassing interest; one of the most difficult of known double stars.
λ, 1.7.
Shaula probably is from Al Shaulah, the Sting, where it lies; but, according to Al Bīrūnī, from Mushālah, Raised, referring to the position of the sting ready to strike. These words have been confused with the names for the adjoining υ, and in the course of time corrupted to Shauka, Alascha, Mosclek, and Shomlek; Chilmead writing of these last:
It is also called Schomlek, which Scaliger thinkes is read by transposition of the letters for Mosclek, which signifieth the bending of the taile.
Naturally it was an unlucky star with astrologers.
λ and υ were the 17th manzil, Al Shaulah, and the nakshatra Vicritāu, the Two Releasers, perhaps from the Vedic opinion that they brought relief from lingering disease.
Some Hindu authorities, taking in all the stars from ε to υ, called the whole Mūlā, the Root, with the divine Nirrity, Calamity, as regent of the asterism, which was represented as a Lion's Tail; this title appearing also for stars of Sagittarius. In Coptic Egypt λ and υ were Minamref, the Sting; and, on the Euphrates, Sarur.
An imaginary line extended from υ through Shaula serves to point out the near-by clusters 6 M. and NGC 6475, 7 M., visible together in the field of an opera-glass. These probably were the ancient termination of the sting to which Smyth alluded in his comments on λ and υ, although he is not quite clear about the matter; they certainly were the νεφελοειδής of Ptolemy, among his ἀμόρφωτοι of Σκορπίος; and Girus ille nebulosus in the Latin Almagest of 1551. Ulug Beg's translator had Stella nebulosa quae sequitur aculeum Scorpionis, — Tāliʽ al Shaulah, That which follows the Sting.
In the legends of the Polynesian Islanders, notably those of the Hervey group, the stars in the Scorpion, from the two lettered μ to λ and υ, were the Fish-hook of Maui, with which that god drew up from the depths the great island Tongareva; and the names and legend that Ellis, in his Polynesian Researches, applied to Castor and Pollux in Gemini, the Reverend Mr. W. W. Gill asserts, in his Myths and Songs of the South Pacific, belong here, and are the favorites among the story-tellers of the Hervey Islands. They make the star μ1 a little girl, Piri-ere‑ua, the Inseparable, with her smaller brother, μ2, fleeing from home to the sky when ill treated by their parents, the stars λ and υ, who followed them and are still in pursuit.
This μ1 has recently been discovered to be a spectroscopic binary, with a period of about 35 hours. It is a 3.3‑magnitude, and of Secchi's 1st class.
μ2 is of 3.7 magnitude.
ν, Quadruple, 4, 5, 72, and 8.3,

is Jabbah in the Century Cyclopedia, perhaps from its being one of the manzil Iklīl al Jabhah.
It lies 2° east of β, and is another Double Double like ε Lyrae, although less readily resolved, the larger pair being only 0ʺ.89 apart, and smaller about 1ʺ.9. Espin-Webb says: "Probably a quadruple system." Burnham finds it surrounded by a remarkable winglike nebula some 2° in diameter.

ξ, Triple, 5, 5.2, and 7.5, bright white, pale yellow, and gray.

Bayer wrote that the "Barbarians" called this Graffias, a title that Burritt assigned in 1835 to ξ of Libra; but he transferred this in his Atlas of 1856 to β Scorpii, 8 1/2° to the north, leaving this star nameless. On the Heis map ξ is near the tip of the northern claw, so close to the northern scale that Flamsteed made it the 51 Librae of his catalogue.
The components are 1ʺ.4 and 7ʺ.3 apart, and may form a triple system with a possible period of about 105 years.

σ, Double, 3 and 9, creamy white, and τ, 2.9,

were Al Niyāṭ, the Praecordia, or Outworks of the Heart, on either side of, and, as it were, protecting, Antares, the Heart of the Scorpion. Knobel, in his translation of Al Achsasi's work, explains the word as "the vein which suspends the heart"!
υ, 2.8.
Lesath, or Lesuth, is from Al Lasʽah, the Sting, which, with λ, it marks; yet Smyth, who treats of these two stars at considerable length, says that the word is
formed by Scaliger's conjecture from Alascha, which is a corruption of al‑shaúlah. Lesath, therefore, is not a term used by the Arabs, who designate all these bumps, which form the tail, Al‑fiḳrah, vertebrated twirls; they are formed by ε, μ, ζ, η, θ, ι, κ, λ, and υ, and it is supposed that the sting, punctura scorpionis, was formerly carried to the following star, γ, marked nebulous by Ptolemy.
But this γ is surely wrong; that letter really applying to a star in the right claw very far to the west of the sting, — as far as the make-up of the creature will allow. Still Burritt located it as Smyth did. Al Bīrūnī wrote that λ and υ were in the Ḣarazāh, the Joints of the Vertebrae. Riccioli mentioned υ as Lesath vel potius Lessaa Elaakrab Morsum Scorp. vel Denneb Elaakrab; and Bayer, Leschat recté Lesath, Moschleck, Alascha, which we have seen for λ; but the proximity of these stars renders this duplication not unnatural.
The Chinese knew them as Keen Pi, the Two Parts of a Lock.
Ideler thought υ the γ of Telescopium, but this does not agree with Bode's drawing of the latter.

ω1, 4.1, and ω2, 4.6, red.

The Arabians called these Jabhat al ʽAḳrab, the Forehead, or Front, of the Scorpion; and the Chinese, Kow Kin, a Hook and Latch.
They are an interesting naked-eye pair, 14 1/2ʹ apart, lying just south of β; but Bayer mentions and shows only a single star.

Aucun commentaire: