Star Identification

The brightest stars of a constellation are identified by a Greek letter. Beginning with alpha, stars are assigned letters primarily by decreasing magnitude. A particular star can be identified by naming the Greek letter and then the genitive form of the contellation, or its abbreviation. For example, the brightest star in the contellation Centaurus is Alpha Centauri, or Alpha Cen for short. In addition to these systematic names, many stars also have Arabic names.

The following table lists the letters of the Greek alphabet.

	alpha			eta			nu			tau
	beta			theta			xi			upsilon
	gamma			iota			omicron			phi
	delta			kappa			pi			chi
	epsilon			lambda			rho			psi
	zeta			mu			sigma			omega

• Find out more about star names.