The constellation of Delphinus, the Dolphin // CHERUBINO
My favorite constellation! Read more about the stars below the cut. It includes a practical joke played on us!
In order of brightest to dimmest:
Rotanev (β Delphini) is a binary star system composed of two white giant stars about 100 light years away. Sualocin (α Delphini) is an octuple system with the primary being a blue giant star. The system is about 250 light years away.
I grouped these two stars together because they share a similar etymology. Niccolò Cacciatore (1770-1841) was the director of the Palermo Observatory. He attached these names to the stars in 1814 in the Palermo Star Catalog. It wasn't until several decades later that the origin of these names was found. Cacciatore's name, Nicholas Hunter in English, would be Latinized to Nicolaus Venator. Reversing the letters of that name produces the two star names, the result of Cacciatore's little practical joke of naming the two stars after himself.
Aldulfin (ε Delphini) is a solitary star, a blue giant about 330 light years away. Its name comes from the Arabic phrase ðanab ad-dulfīn meaning "the dolphin's tail."
γ Delphini is a wide binary system consisting of a white star and an orange giant. The system is about 115 light years away. Both stars are about twice the mass of the Sun.
δ Delphini is another binary system of nearly identical chemically peculiar blue-white stars. They are about 220 light years away, both being about 1.7 times the mass of the Sun and 3.5 times the size of the Sun.
ζ Delphini is a singular star, a blue-white star that is much younger than the Sun. Age estimates put it at about 500 million years old. The star is about 220 light years away.
