View source for Al-Miġzal

{{DISPLAYTITLE: ''al-Mighzal'', ''al-Miġzal'' (المِغْزَل)}}

Authors: {{PAGEAUTHORS}}
----
[[File:Almighzal.png|thumb|Star chart of the Arabian asterism ''al-Miġzal'' (المِغْزَل). (CC BY Khalid AlAjaji 2026).]]
'''al-Miġzal''' (Arabic: المِغْزَل), “the wool spindle” is an Arabic name for the stars forming a cross shape in Cygnus.

==Provenance, Etymology, History==

The name al-Miġzal is used regionally in central Saudi Arabia.
[[File:Al-Miġzal.png|thumb|Al-Miġzal asterism in Cygnus. Photo by Khalid al-Ajaji taken on October 2016, the time of the identification of the name and its stars.  (CC BY Khalid AlAjaji 2026).]]
<gallery widths="240" heights="360" perrow="1">
File:Service-pnp-matpc-03700-03790v.jpg|Bedouin shepherdess spinning. Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Digital ID: matpc 03790 https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/matpc.03790 [https://www.loc.gov/resource/matpc.03790/ Original image on loc.gov]
</gallery>

===Etymology===
''al-Miġzal'' (Arabic: المِغْزَل)is derived from the Arabic root (غزل), referring to a wool spindle, and ultimately from the verb “أُغْزِلَ,” meaning “to be twisted and rotated”.

===Sources and Identification===
The name comes from local oral tradition, recorded by Khalid al-Ajaji in October 2016 during a star-gazing session in the dunes of Ṯuwayrāt in the [[wikipedia:Al-Zulfi|al-Zulfī]] region, northwest of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The identification was made directly at the time, when the informant pointed to the cross-shaped stars of Cygnus, visible from shortly after sunset until after midnight.

The research is documented and published in Stellarium software,<ref>Zotti, G., Hoffmann, S. M., Wolf, A., Chéreau, F., & Chéreau, G. (2021). The Simulated Sky: Stellarium for Cultural Astronomy Research. Journal of Skyscape Archaeology, 6(2), 221–258. DOI: 10.1558/jsa.17822</ref> available as a public dataset in the Stellarium GitHub Repository<ref>Stellarium Repo https://zenodo.org/records/20835040<nowiki/>Stellarium's official Zenodo Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.5281/zenodo.20835040</ref> and the description by Khalid AlAjaji is also published in paper form in the conference proceedings Hoffmann and Wolfschmidt (eds. 2022)<ref>Khalid AlAjaji (2022). Stellarium Sky Culture "Arabian Peninsula", in Hoffmann, S. and Wolfschmidt, G. (eds.). Astronomy in Culture - Cultures of Astronomy, Featuring the Proceedings of a splinter meeting in the German Astronomical Society. tredition, Ahrensburg.</ref>. In Stellarium it is written (by Khalid AlAjaji):  <blockquote>'''The Wool Spindle:''' The cross-shaped arrangement of α Cyg (Deneb), ε Cyg (Gienah), γ Cyg (Sadr), δ Cyg, and β1+β2 Cyg (Albireo). This comes from oral tradition in Zulfi, central Saudi Arabia [#1]<ref>Reference [#1] in this case is "Oral Tradition" documented by the author of this sky culture, Khalid AlAjaji. </ref>. </blockquote>

==== Stars Identification ====
The asterism of al-Miġzal is formed by the stars α, γ, β Cyg and ε, γ, δ Cyg.

The identification is considered secure, as the narrator of the name personally indicated these stars when describing al-Miġzal.

==IAU Working Group Star Names==

In 2026, the name al-Miġzal (or any spelling variant) was suggested as a star name in the area that is covered by the historical asterism. It is suggested to be used for η Cyg.  

WGSN decided in ... 202x to name  ... ... 

This star is <a red giant or whatelse> ... here astrophysical data will be added (by Eric, most likely) after the decision.

== Weblinks ==

* Stellarium https://stellarium.org/

== Reference ==

[[Category:Africa]][[Category:North Africa]]
[[Category:Eurasia]][[Category:Asian]][[Category:West Asian]] 
[[Category:Arabic]]
[[Category:Asterism]][[Category:Constellation]]
[[Category:Star Name]]