How stars, planets, constellations and other celestial objects get their names CNN 1 hr ago © CNN/Getty Images/Shutterstock
If you step out the door on a clear, dark night at this time of year, you ll find the great constellation called Ursa Major high in the sky below Polaris, the pole star.
You might even be able to pick out a small star there, in the middle of the handle of the Big Dipper. It s called Alcor, a binary star paired with the nearby, brighter Mizar, Arabic for cloak. In Arabic, the former star is called al-Khawwar, the faint one, and finding it made for a good eye test in the days before wall charts.
From Alcor to Zappafrank: How the stars and other celestial objects got their names
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From Alcor to Zappafrank: How the stars and other celestial objects got their names
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