Epsilon Ursae Minoris has no proper name...

[Edward Z]

Tracking a 11 Jun /24 pass of the Chinese Space plane near the 4th mag star Epsilon Ursae Minoris , it appears Stellarium has labeled this star as "Circitores"? Who's calling it this (IAU?) and what is the source for this star name? 

Another name for this star and being used on various amateur web pages is the name ‘Urodelus", which according to Ian Ridpath is linked back to a "bogus Wikipedia entry."

Neither names are listed in the SIMBAD data listing.   

  

[Edward Z]

Since eps UMi is a variable the AAVSO's VSX doesn't call it any name either:

https://www.aavso.org/vsx/index.php?view=detail.top&oid=37415

[Georg Zotti]

The entry in the file star_names.fab references ref.11, which is: Jack W. Rhoads (1971). "Reduced Star Catalog Containing 537 Named Stars", Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; November 15, 1971|https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19720005197

I personally don't like this source, although this skyculture seems to be a collection of all kinds of names from the history of (scientific "western") astronomy. While made "at JPL", it seems it fulfilled some internal purpose of providing "unique names" in 1971, but AFAICS never was used outside. If time allows, I want to allow user selection of sources, so that this (and a few others) could be suppressed by the user.

[Brian Kloppenborg]

Greetings,

For the record, AAVSO only has proper names for a handful of stars... perhaps fewer than 50. As such, it shouldn't be regarded as an authoritative source for star names.

Dr. Brian Kloppenborg

Executive Director, AAVSO

[Edward Z]

Thanks for the great feedback from all.