Astronomy implies "star naming", but Astronomers don't do a lot of star-naming these days. Mostly they use numbers and letters without pronunciation. In fact, they tend to dislike and work against people who do register name stars.

People interested in star physics are called astrophysicists, so maybe we should think of new titles for those who would be formally called astronomers.

They measure stars, so maybe they can be called "astrometers" or "astrometrists".

They chart and map stars, so maybe they can be called "astrographers".

They collect and catalog information about stars, so maybe they should be called "astrologgers"... um, okay forget that one.

So what do you think they should be called?

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

People who measure the positions and apparent motions of stars (with mind-numbing precision) are already called astrometrists. Woe unto anyone calling Philip Ianna an astronomer... And a particular kind of wide-field optical system especially useful for celestial images has long been called an astrograph, so its derivatives would be too confusing. The closest linguistic parallel for geologist, biologist, etc, would be astrologist, and that's a definite non-starter. I suppose one could go the Anglish route as if the Norman invasion never happened and refer to this as the practice of starken.

Hmm. What was wrong with astronomer, again?

Depends on how you look at it. Entomologically, it's derived from the same roots as economy and nomology. Nomology is (Ame.Her.Dic.) "The study and discovery of general physical and logical laws."

It doesn't mean "star naming", it means the study of the laws of stars. Probably more descriptive than astrologist--even if it weren't already taken.

(You're bugging me!)

But, etymologically, yeah:

Cool. I didn't know this. Wikipedia:

That is a daemon to be feared.

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The same root, nomos, is lurking in the background of Dysnomia, the name of Eris's moon, with its awful "lawless" pun.

Grant Hutchison

If they really were star namers, they'd be called astronymers or something like that.

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"Illuminati's Razor - The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer."
-- Fazor

Donutophages

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The views expressed are the febrile product of an overactive imagination of a person who in shadows sees the gyrating Elvis-like ghost of Leonid Brezhnev.

Oh, it's got to remain astronomer.

I've been an amateur astronomer since age 8 (am now 42) and can't fathom "us" being called anything different!

C'mon, be kind: It's bad enough that Pluto has been demoted. Don't hurt me further by changing the venerable and time-honored astronomer to something different! :*(

I plum forgot about "gastronomers"

As subgroup names are needed, new terms are found such as the use of asteroxxxxx (e.g. asteroseismology). But is this use diminished with the improved knowledge of asteroids (ie non-stars)?

I suppose this is analogous to the misunderstanding of the definintion of
the word meteorology, which applies much more to atmospheric phenomena than to meteors.

Yes, that was a good one. Are there other puns in celestial names, excluding the pun possibility found in the German's introduction of the name Uranus )?

[Added: For those who might not know, Eris (goddess of Kaos) was originally called Xena. The television Xena was played by Lucy Lawless. ]

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

I think the name Perdita was chosen for Uranus XXV with a pun in mind.
She's a character from The Winter's Tale, so conforms to the convention for naming Uranians after characters from Shakespeare and Pope. But her name also parses as "little lost one", which is a neat reference to the fact that the moon had a temporary designation S/1986 U10 from Voyager 2 photographs, but wasn't properly numbered and named until its rediscovery in 2003 using the Hubble Space Telescope.

Grant Hutchison

Just please, don't let any redefinitions be done by the IAU.

Uranus should have been called Ouranos, which is the actual Greek name of the god for whom the planet was named. Somehow, in "Latinizing" it, somebody (I don't know who) came up with the version we have now.

kilopi No, Xena was played by Lucy Lawless, but I think they disallowed the name Xena, and snuck that one in there.

Blame the ancient Romans. For the Greek divinities for whom they found no suitable Italic counterpart, they simply Latinized the name, thus giving us Uranus, Pluto (Gr. Plouton) and various others.

Outside of philological scholarship, Latin or Latinized name-forms for classical mythological figures were until fairly recently all-prevailing in Latin Europe with offshoots, and that the planet should have been given the name in a closer transcription of the Greek¹ was never a realistic possibility.


¹ The Greeks, of course, write neither "Uranus" nor "Ouranos", but Ουρανός.

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"Illuminati's Razor - The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer."
-- Fazor

Would that be a bee sting in the g. maximus?

Not the in-your-face kinda pun, but the subtle ones can be just as nice.

It's hard to keep pace with your humor. I'm gonna regret admitting I don't get this. Three years hasn't seemed to help, either.

Ah, yes, Gabriel was the sidekick. Thanks. I'll fix it.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

I tend to favor the idea of the discoverer being allowed to name it. It [Herschel's well-crafted name] was a bit sensitive to the French, and Americans, at the time, but it should work ok today.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

Good point. Maybe they should be called "astronomores" because they will allow "no more" planets.

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

Me, I've always preferred the ones you have to think about to the ones you try not to think about.
The old "Peccavi" telegram story still cracks me up: that's how sad I am.

Grant Hutchison

Yes, the superficial ones can quickly become trite, but when they are fresh and catch you off-guard, they can be just as funny.

A good mechanic friend of mine from West Virgina likes to twist common phrases. For example, "You think so?" becomes "You stink sore?". When I used it back at him, he responed, "My nose sore". [I suspect this will make sense after crossing the Atlantic. Does it?]

Repent! [I'd not heard this one before, but it's a dandy.]

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.