Appendix C

THE GREEK ALPHABET

Many of the brighter stars have names, as Aldebaran, Capella, Sirius, etc., but astronomers now indicate the stars of a constellation by the letters of the Greek alphabet. The usual method is to call the brightest star of a constellation α, that is, Alpha, the next brightest β which is Beta, and so on, but sometimes the stars are lettered in order of position in the sky.

The following is the Greek alphabet:

α Alpha ν Nu β Beta ξ Xi (Zi) γ Gamma ο Omicron δ Delta π Pi ε Epsilon ρ Rho ζ Zeta σ Sigma η Eta τ Tau θ Theta υ Upsilon ι Iota φ Phi κ Kappa χ Chi λ Lambda ψ Psi μ Mu ω Omega