This blog has addressed the question of how stars get their names before. This is about some star names with very unusual origins.
During the Apollo moon landing program, the ability of astronauts to determine their position and velocity independently of Earth-based tracking was deemed an important skill. In transition between the Earth and the moon, the only fixed reference points were the stars. 37 stars were selected, fairly evenly distributed across the entire sky, that could be used for this purpose.
Apollo 11 star chart carried aboard the lunar lander Eagle.
Some of those stars were familiar bright ones. Deneb, Vega, Arcturus, Rigel, Capella, Sirius–all of these are well-known to even a casual sky watcher. But bright stars are not evenly distributed across the sky. Dimmer and less familiar stars had to be included among those 37. Gamma Cassiopeiae, Gamma Velorum, and Iota Ursae Majoris are all proper names, and all are quite a mouthful.
The ill-fated crew of Apollo 1, who perished in a launch pad fire in January 1967, were Virgil Ivan (“Gus”) Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Edward White II.
(L to R): Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White, Roger Chaffee
More or less as a practical joke, Grissom unofficially renamed the three stars above as Navi (Ivan spelled backward), Regor (Roger spelled backward), and Dnoces (Second–Ed White II–spelled backward). After the crew’s death, NASA kept those names on subsequent star charts as a tribute, and you can still find them listed among more formal names on many star charts and planetarium programs today.
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