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 Nicolò Cacciatore (1780 - 1841), assistant to Giuseppe Piazzi, who reversed the letters in the Latin version of his own name ("Nicolaus Venator").

The two mysterious names Sualocin and Rotanev simply appeared without explanation in the Palermo star catalogue of 1814. It took some time before other astronomers caught on to their origin; the names have stuck.

Cacciatore also discovered NGC 6541 in 1826, but it was also located by another astronomer soon thereafter.

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