Acubens

Authors: Roland Laffitte, Susanne M Hoffmann

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

Acubens stick figure (CC BY Sadegh Faghanpour for IAU WGSN).

Acubens 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 44066 (α Cnc, HR 3572) in constellation Cnc.

Etymology and History

Applied with various spellings since medieval times, from the Arabic word al-zubana, "the claw", used in Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos in describing the stars α and ι Cnc. Otherwise, the same Arabic word was used for the "claws" of Scorpius.

Northern and Southern "Acubens"

Laffitte (2025) distingishes two star names "Acubens", a northern and a southern one:

Page 209 :

Cancer in Laffitte (2025, p. 208). Fig. 29a. Καρκίνος / Karkinos – al-Saraṭān, « le Crabe ».

Acubens [Bor.] (ι Cnc : 4,0) / الزبانى

Emprunté au XVI^e siècle, ce nom a la même origine que celui d’α Cnc dont ι Cnc occupe une position symétrique dans la figure (voir Fig. 29a). Ar. > lat. : Acubens p/ ι Cnc et Acubenae (plur.) p/ α Cnc, Atlas de Mercator (1551) > Acubenae p/ α et ι Cnc, Mesnard ; « Die Nordlische Scheere - ‘Zubên‘- des Krebses », Ideler > Zubanah B-A p/ ι^1-2 Cnc, Rhoads.

English: Borrowed in the 16th century, this name has the same origin as that of α Cnc, with ι Cnc occupying a symmetrical position in the figure (see Fig. 29a). Ar. > Lat. : Acubens for ι Cnc and Acubenae (plur.) for α Cnc, Mercator's Atlas (1551) > Acubenae for α and ι Cnc, Mesnard; ‘Die Nordlische Scheere - “Zubên” - des Krebses’, Ideler > Zubanah B-A for ι1-2 Cnc, Rhoads.

Page 207:

Acubens [Aus.] (α Cnc : 4,26) / الزبانى

Emprunté au XII^e siècle et aujourd’hui approuvé par l’UAI, c’est l’arabe al-Zubānā, interprété comme « la Pince » du Crabe, nom primitivement en usage chez les Arabes pour Libra, où son véritable sens est « la Balance » (voir cette constellation. Ar. : al-Ḥağğāğ, et p/ ex al-Ṣūfī. Ayant interprété ce mot al-zubānā comme « la pince » pour Scorpio, les philologues arabes l’ont dupliqué dans le Cancer (voir Libra, infra, 221). Lat. açubene et azubene, Platon de Tivoli ; fr. : Léopold d’Autriche. Allen, etc., Simbad, UAI. Voir aussi ι Cnc

English: Borrowed in the 12th century and now approved by the IAU, it is the Arabic al-Zubānā, interpreted as ‘the Claw’ of the Crab, a name originally used by the Arabs for Libra, where its true meaning is ‘the Scales’ (see this constellation. Ar.: al-Ḥağğāğ, and e.g. al-Ṣūfī. Having interpreted this word al-zubānā as ‘the claw’ for Scorpio, Arabic philologists duplicated it in Cancer (see Libra, infra, 221). Lat. açubene and azubene, Plato of Tivoli; Fr.: Leopold of Austria. Allen, etc., Simbad, UAI. See also ι Cnc.

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name was adopted by the IAU WGSN on 2016/07/20.

Weblinks

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

Reference

• References (general)
• Kunitzsch, Paul; Smart, Tim (2006). A Dictionary of Modern star Names: A Short Guide to 254 Star Names and Their Derivations (2nd rev. ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Sky Pub.