Udkadua

Not to be confused with UD.KA.DU₈.A (𒌓𒅗𒂃𒀀).

Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann, Youla Azkarrula

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Udkadua profile card (CC BY Sadegh Faghanpour, OAE Iran).

Udkadua

Asterism Info
Native	UD.KA.DU8.A
Translation	the storm demon with the gaping mouth
Position (2000)
Right ascension	354.3910116
Declination	46.45815131
Area	0 sq. deg.
Stars
Bright stars	1
Bayer/Flamsteed stars	1
Stars brighter than 3.00m	0
Brightest star	Udkadua (3.82m)
Taxonomy
category of asterism	IAU-Star Name
IAU- constellations	And

Udkadua is a modern star name adopted by the International Astronomical Union in the IAU-Catalog of Star Names (IAU-CSN). Its origin is Sumerian (UD.KA.DU₈.A (𒌓𒅗𒂃𒀀)). It is the name of HIP 116584 (λ And, HR 8961) in constellation And.

Udkadua in a stickfigure (CC BY Sadegh Faghanpour, OAE Iran).

Etymology and History

The Sumerian term is a compound, literally meaning "the storm demon with the gaping mouth". This Babylonian constellation is at least 3000 years old; the star named after it was considered as its heel. It was highly important, as it was used for time-measurement for at least a millennium (if not longer), a so-called ziqpu-star.

• 
  Heel of UD.KA.DU8.A in Stellarium
• 
  UD.KA.DU8.A and its neighbouring constellations in Babylonian uranography.

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name was adopted by the IAU WGSN on 2025/05/08.

Weblinks

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

Reference

• References (general)
• see ASE