Sualocin and Rotanev

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Sualocin (α Delphini) and Rotanev (β Delphini) are names of stars, the result of an enduring practical joke played by the Italian astronomer Niccolò Cacciatore (17801841.) Cacciatore worked as an assistant to Giuseppe Piazzi, head of the Palermo Astronomical Observatory, while Piazzi was compiling a star catalog. When the Palermo Star Catalogue was published in 1814, the names Sualocin and Rotanev appeared in the catalog without explanation; eventually the astronomer Thomas Webb pointed out that they were reversals of Cacciatore's Latinized name (Nicolaus Venator.)

[edit] See also

Niccolò Cacciatore