The Sky as Display of Love, Thankfulness and Admiration
Often, the IAU gets requests by individuals to name stars after particular people. The reasons for these suggestions are for instance:
- (i) that dead souls are considered to ascend to the stars and people want to honour their ancestors
- (ii) people want to give credentials to colleagues or people who were helpful (e.g. a doctor who rescued the life of a relative)
The IAU will never do this because it could cause political discussions. However, the concept of the ascension of souls towards the stars is universal. As all peoples and cultures all over the globe did this, we can also find this concept in the ancient roots of the modern IAU constellations. Here is a list of professions:
| IAU-constellation name | cultural origin (meaning) | original name | culture (place, time) of origin |
| Auriga | honors the profession of all people who drive cars and transport goods or people: i.e. drivers of taxis, busses, trucks … | Erichtonios of Athens | poleis of Athens (~800 BCE) |
| Argo (Puppis, Vela, Carina), Pyxis | honors all maritim professions (captains, navigators, sailors, …) and discoverers | ||
| Bootes | honors the professions of farmers | Ploughman | Greek |
| Ophiuchus | honors the profession of doctors, pharmacists and nurses | Asklepios/ Aesculap | Greco-Roman |
| Caelum and Scultor | honor the profession of sculptors | Lacaille (1756) | |
| Pictor, Circinus, Reticulum, Triangulum Australe, Norma | honor the professions of graphical artists, architects, mathematicians | Lacaille (1756) | |
| Fornax | honors the science of chemistry | Lacaille (1756) | |
| Microscopium and Telescopium | honor the sciences and the handcrafts of optics | Lacaille (1756) | |
| Octans and Sextans | honor the science and handcrafts of navigation and topographical survey | Lacaille (1756) | |
| Mensa | honors the professions of meteorology and navigation | Lacaille (1756) | |
| Antlia | honors the profession of experimental physics | Lacaille (1756) |
Of course, there is also a list of asterisms and constellations that have been or are used to celebrate of the descension of souls from the sky when a baby is born and the ascension of souls to the sky when a person dies.
In particular, the Milky Way is considered as a street of travelling souls from/ to/ along the heavens in almost all cultures.
| IAU-name | cultural origin (meaning) | original name | culture of origin (place, time) |
| Pleiades & Hyades (asterisms in Taurus) | “Gate of the Heavens” i.e. the gate for souls that are born | ancient Greece (preserved in Plato, 4th century BCE) | |
| Eagle | the eagle carries dead souls to the stars | ancient Babylonian & ancient Greek | |
| asterism of Antinous in the constellation of the Eagle | homosexual love (although the name-giving model is pederasty) | Antinous (the Corpse) | Ptolemy (137 CE) (Babylonian) |
| Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Andromeda | the heavenly family | Greek, Syriac | |
| Gemini | the symbol of brotherly love | ||
| Coma Berenices | love between husband and wife | The Lock | invented in Egypt under Greek reign, in the 2nd half of the 3rd century BCE |
| the bright seven stars in Ursa Major | a pregnant woman | D/L/Nakota (North America) | |
| the bright stars of UMa and Cas | the fruitful couple heavenly man and heavenly woman (the couple of origin of all humans) | Navajo (North America) | |
| … | … to be continued … | … | … |