3. The Great Bear is conventionally drawn with his right front paw at Talitha: Allen: "ι, Binary, 3.2 and 13, topaz yellow and purple, and κ, 3.5. Smyth wrote that this star has obtained the name of Talita, the third vertebra, the meaning of which is not quite clear [people always say so when they haven't got a clue]. Ulug Beigh has it Al Phikra al Thalitha, perhaps for Al Kafzah al-thālithah, the third spring, or leap, of the ghazal; but he was not sufficiently comprehensive, for this last title was applied by the Arabs to ι and κ together; al Ūla, the First (leap), being shown by ν and ξ, an al Thānīyah, the Second (leap), by λ and μ - not δ and μ as that generally accurate author asserted. Hyde strangely rendered the original words of Ulug Beg as the Vertebrae of the Greater Bear, - whence probably Smyth's statement, - or the Cavity of the Heel, which, from the star's position in the figure, is a much more likely translation." We should add κ (Talitha Australis according to Wikipedia) to our list:
Wikipedia has other names too, namely the modern nickname Dnoces ['second' backwards] and Alphikra Borealis for ι respectively Al Kaprah and Alphikra Australis for κ. |