Acrab

Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann, Youla Azkarrula, IanRidpath

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Acrab profile card (CC BY Sadegh Faghanpour for IAU WGSN).

Acrab

Asterism Info
Native	العقرب
IPA	[acrab]
Translation	the scorpion
Position (2000)
Right ascension	241.35929
Declination	-19.80539
Area	0 sq. deg.
Stars
Bright stars	1
Bayer/Flamsteed stars	1
Stars brighter than 3.00m	0
Brightest star	Acrab (2.5m)
Taxonomy
category of asterism	IAU-Star Name
IAU- constellations	Sco

Acrab is a modern star name adopted by the International Astronomical Union in the IAU-Catalog of Star Names (IAU-CSN). Its origin is Arabic. It is the name of HIP 78820 (β¹ Sco, HR 5984) in constellation Sco.

Etymology and History

Acrab stickfigure (CC BY Sadegh Faghanpour for IAU WGSN).

Arabic name al-'Aqrab for the constellation Scorpius ("the scorpion") (e.g. al-Ṣūfī). Application of the transliteration "Acrab" specifically to the pair Beta¹ and Beta² Sco was made by Piazzi (1814) in the Palermo Catalog, and its use spread through the 19th century.

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name was adopted by the IAU WGSN on 2016/08/21.

Weblinks

• Website of the IAU WGSN: https://exopla.net/

Reference

• References (general)
• Kunitzsch, P. (1959) Arabische Sternnamen in Europa. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. No. 3; 88; 108