THE GREEK ALPHABET

alpha

The Greek alphabet was used by Johannes Bayer around the year 1600 to name the brighter stars. The basic rule was to name them in order of brightness, but the rule is more often violated than not, the designations commonly also depending on the positionings of the stars within their constellations and other factors known only to Bayer. To the Greek letter is appended the Latin possessive form of the constellation name, Vega, the Alpha star of Lyra, becoming Alpha Lyrae, and so on.

1. Alpha 2. Beta 3. Gamma 4. Delta 5. Epsilon 6. Zeta
7. Eta 8. Theta 9. Iota 10. Kappa 11. Lambda 12. Mu
13. Nu 14. Xi 15. Omicron 16. Pi 17. Rho 18. Sigma
19. Tau 20. Upsilon 21. Phi 22. Chi 23. Psi 24. Omega



Greek Alphabet


Table from The Ever- Changing Sky, J. B. Kaler, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996.

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