Magnitude 3.77 Apparent magnitude (V) 3.77 | Constellation Delphinus | |
Similar Beta Delphini, Gamma Delphini, Alpha Cancri, Alpha Columbae, Alpha Crateris | ||
Alpha Delphini (α Delphini, abbreviated Alpha Del, α Del), also named Sualocin, is a multiple star in the constellation of Delphinus.
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Nomenclature
α Delphini (Latinised to Alpha Delphini) is the star's Bayer designation.
It bore an historical name, Sualocin, which arose as follows: Niccolò Cacciatore was the assistant to Giuseppe Piazzi, and later his successor as Director of the Palermo Observatory. The name first appeared in Piazzi's Palermo Star Catalogue. When the Catalogue was published in 1814, the unfamiliar names Sualocin and Rotanev were attached to Alpha and Beta Delphini, respectively. Eventually the Reverend Thomas Webb, a British astronomer, puzzled out the explanation. Cacciatore's name, Nicholas Hunter in English translation, would be Latinized to Nicolaus Venator. Reversing the letters of this construction produces the two star names. They have endured, the result of Cacciatore's little practical joke of naming the two stars after himself. How Webb arrived at this explanation 45 years after the publication of the catalogue is still a mystery.
In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalogue and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN approved the name Sualocin for Alpha Delphini on 12 September 2016 and it is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names.
In Chinese, 瓠瓜 (Hù Guā), meaning Good Gourd, refers to an asterism consisting of Alpha Delphini, Gamma2 Delphini, Delta Delphini, Beta Delphini and Zeta Delphini. Consequently, Alpha Delphini itself is known as 瓠瓜一 (Hù Guā yī, English: the First Star of Good Gourd.).
In Hindu astronomy, the star corresponded to one of the nakshatras named Dhanishta.
Properties
Alpha Delphini has seven components: A and G, a physical binary, and B, C, D, E, and F, which are optical binaries and have no physical association with A and G.