Rotanev is the brightest star of Delphinus, a close binary whose odd name is a Latin surname written backwards, a joke hidden in a star catalogue.
At a glance
| type | yellow-white star (class F) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 101 light-years (30.9 pc) |
| its light left it | 101 years ago |
| luminosity | 29.2 × the Sun |
| radius | 4.07 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 6,650 K |
| constellation | Delphinus (Dolphin) |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Rotanev
The card shows a yellow-white star of class F, larger and brighter than the Sun. It is in fact two stars in a tight orbit, close enough on the sky that splitting them takes a large telescope.
The names of Rotanev and its neighbour Sualocin first appeared in the star catalogue of the Palermo Observatory. Read backwards they give Nicolaus Venator, the Latin form of Niccolò Cacciatore, the assistant astronomer there, who is generally thought to have slipped his own name into the sky.
What you see in the piece
Rotanev is one corner of the dolphin’s diamond. Fly out from Earth and that diamond flattens and breaks apart, its corners lying at different depths.
Questions
Why is Rotanev spelled backwards?
Rotanev is Venator reversed, from Nicolaus Venator, the Latin form of the name of Niccolò Cacciatore of Palermo Observatory. Sualocin, its neighbour, is Nicolaus reversed.