Editing Albireo (section)

==Nomenclature==

[[File:CygnusCC.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Albireo is the star in the head of the constellation of Cygnus (bottom).]]

''β Cygni'' ([[Latinisation of names|Latinised]] to ''Beta Cygni'') is the system's [[Bayer designation]]. The brighter of the two components is designated ''β¹ Cygni'' or ''Beta Cygni A'' and the fainter ''β² Cygni'' or ''Beta Cygni B''.

The origin of the star system's traditional name ''Albireo'' is unclear. [[Christian Ludwig Ideler]] traced it to [https://viewer.slv.vic.gov.au/?entity=IE10167306&file=FL21840507&mode=browse the heading for the constellation we call Cygnus] in Ptolemy's star catalog, in the translation of the [[Almagest]] by [[Gerard of Cremona]]: "''Stellatio Eurisim: et est volans; et jam vocatur gallina. et dicitur eurisim quasi redolens ut lilium ab ireo''" ("Constellation Eurisim: and it is the Flyer, and it is also called the Hen, and it is called Eurisim as if redolent like the lily from the 'ireo'"). (The original Greek just calls the constellation "Ορνιθος αστερισμος", "the constellation of the Bird".) The word "ireo" is obscure as well{{snd}}Ideler suggests that Gerard took "Eurisim" to mean the plant ''[[Erysimum]]'', which is called ''[[wikt:irio|irio]]'' in Latin, but the ablative case of that is not "ireo" but ''irione''.<ref>p. 24, [https://archive.org/details/namesstarsandco00higggoog/page/n27/mode/2up ''The names of the stars and constellations compiled from the Latin, Greek and Arabic''], W. H. Higgins, Leicester: Samuel Clarke, 1882.</ref> In any case, Ideler proposed that (somehow) the phrase "ab ireo" was applied to the star at the head of the bird, and this became "Albireo" when an "l" was mistakenly inserted as though it was an Arabic name.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/ALLSTA/Cygnus*.html|title=LacusCurtius • Allen's Star Names — Cygnus}} Allen quotes (in translation) a passage from Ideler's ''Untersuchungen über den Ursprung und die Bedeutung der Sternnamen'' (1809), [https://archive.org/details/untersuchungenb01idelgoog/page/n115/mode/2up page 75].</ref> Ideler also supposed that the name Eurisim was a mistaken transliteration of the Arabic name "Urnis" for Cygnus (from the Greek "Ορνις").

In 2016, the [[International Astronomical Union]] (IAU) organized a [[IAU Working Group on Star Names|Working Group on Star Names]] (WGSN)<ref name="WGSN"/> to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016<ref name="WGSN1"/> included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included ''Albireo '' for β¹ Cygni. It is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names.<ref name="IAU-CSN"/>

Medieval Arabic-speaking astronomers called Beta Cygni ''{{Transliteration|ar|minqār al-dajāja<sup>h</sup>}}'' (English: ''the hen's beak'').<ref>p. 196, [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_5xQuAAAAIAAJ ''Star-names and Their Meanings''], Richard Hinckley Allen, New York, G. E. Stechert, 1899.</ref> The term ''{{Transliteration|ar|minqār al-dajāja<sup>h</sup>}}'' (منقار الدجاجة) or ''Menchir al Dedjadjet'' appeared in the catalogue of stars in the ''Calendarium of Al Achsasi Al Mouakket'', which was translated into [[Latin]] as ''Rostrum Gallinae'', meaning ''the hen's beak''.<ref name=knobel1895/>

Since Cygnus is the swan, and Beta Cygni is located at the head of the swan, it is sometimes called the "beak star".<ref>p. 416, ''In Quest of the Universe'', Theo Koupelis and Karl F. Kuhn, 5th ed., Sudbury, Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2007, {{ISBN|0-7637-4387-9}}.</ref>  With [[Deneb]], [[Gamma Cygni]] (Sadr), [[Delta Cygni]], and [[Epsilon Cygni]] (Gienah), it forms the [[Asterism (astronomy)|asterism]] called the [[Northern Cross (asterism)|Northern Cross]].<ref name=darling/>