Romantic sounding astronomical entities

June 13, 2011 12:54 PM

For our wedding reception we are aiming to name our tables after romantic (or pleasantly poetic) sounding astronomical entities.

Cavets: The pictures available should be beautiful (and available online in high quality) and constellations/planets (Mars, Scorpio, Big Dipper, Southern Cross) are out. Help me compile a list!

Acceptable: Andromeda, Flame Nebula

Unacceptable: Crab Nebula, anything with any direct religious correspondence.

posted by Drama Penguin to Science & Nature (26 answers total)

List of constellations.

List of minor planet names.

List of galaxy names.
posted by axiom at 1:01 PM on June 13, 2011

Best answer: Heart Nebula
posted by phunniemee at 1:02 PM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hoag's Object. In fact, spend a couple of hours browsing the Hubble gallery
posted by IanMorr at 1:04 PM on June 13, 2011

Best answer: My favorites are more pleasantly poetic than romantic:

Stephan's Quintet --any tables of five?
Seconding Hoag's Object
posted by 2ghouls at 1:06 PM on June 13, 2011

Andromeda is a constellation. (Also, mythologically, a woman chained to a rock, waiting to be either eaten by a sea monster or rescued by a hero.)
posted by dywypi at 1:13 PM on June 13, 2011

Ganymede always sounded vaguely romantic to me, but the "greek love" connotations of the name may not fit within the norms of romance at your wedding.
posted by cosmicbandito at 1:14 PM on June 13, 2011

Cassiopeia
posted by mattbucher at 1:15 PM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Not exactly astronomical, but I love the sound of the phrase "aurora borealis" and the photos are gorgeous.
posted by cooker girl at 1:20 PM on June 13, 2011

Best answer: Maybe the Eagle Nebula ("Pillars of Creation")?
posted by chalkbored at 1:23 PM on June 13, 2011

The moons of Uranus were named after characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
posted by adamrice at 1:28 PM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Throughout Asia, one of the most romantic folk tales around involves a pair of stars (Altair and Vega in English). The story tells of two lovers, Cowherd and Weaving Girl, who are separated by circumstance and the Milky Way, which is imagined as a kind of celestial river. The lovers are only allowed to come together once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month, when all the magpies in the world fly up to the heavens to make a bridge for them. It's such a well known story, there are festivals celebrating their love throughout Asia, although the names and details vary from place to place.

The English names don't really carry the same connotations as their many Asian counterparts, but Altair and Vega have the advantage of being two of the brightest stars around, so there ought to be plenty of pictures. As an additional bonus, in some versions of the story, Deneb is where the magpie bridge is placed.
posted by Diagonalize at 1:29 PM on June 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Oops—all of Shakespeare's plays, not just that one.
posted by adamrice at 1:29 PM on June 13, 2011

Best answer: Read the question, people -- no constellations, and the object has to both look and *sound* poetic. "Hoag's Object" looks pretty, but it doesn't exactly roll of the tongue.

Some good ones I found via Google Sky:

California Nebula

Rosette Nebula

Eta Carinae Nebula
posted by Rhaomi at 2:07 PM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Altair and Vega, or Orihime and Hikoboshi.
posted by plep at 2:32 PM on June 13, 2011

I'm a fan of Ceres, personally.
posted by cereselle at 2:45 PM on June 13, 2011

How about the Seven Sisters?
posted by bq at 2:46 PM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: OK, I feel guilty because I posted a constellation when the question clearly states "no constellations" so I went back and found some other candidates:

Mira's bow shock
Perseus Cluster
Asteroid Don Quixote
Rosette Nebula (mentioned above)
Pelican Nebula
Cat's Eye Nebula
posted by mattbucher at 2:49 PM on June 13, 2011

What about the asteroid Eros? NASA and JPL landed a probe on it Feb. 14, 2000.
posted by Buffaload at 4:29 PM on June 13, 2011

The kids would love to sit at Uranus, I bet.
posted by Renoroc at 5:20 PM on June 13, 2011

Can they be fictional? Magrathea.
posted by chmmr at 6:48 PM on June 13, 2011

The Magellanic Clouds.

The Pleiades.
posted by aldebaran at 6:48 PM on June 13, 2011

The Mice Galaxies
posted by kiltedtaco at 7:24 PM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: This one could be romantic in a playful way: Cartwheel Galaxy
posted by amyms at 10:33 PM on June 13, 2011

Best answer: Well this won't work for us - as I think more about it. Naming the tables after galaxies/nebuli are great geek fun - it just really isn't all that practical because it's going to be darkish in the hall and small photos shooting up are going to be hard to see. Esp with them being mostly black/white/red. So we've decided to go with capital cities of the world. However, because I know someone else is going to try to do this exact same thing later - here is a list of the good spots I came up with along with your folks help.

Andromeda Galaxy
Heart Nebula
Rossete Nebula
Stepha's Quintet
Eagle Nebula
Flame Nebula
Butterfly Nebula
Bubble Nebula
Cotton Candy Nebula
Ring Nebula
Sunflower Galaxy
Lagoon Nebula
Sleeping Beauty Galaxy
Rose Galaxy
Eta Carinae (Carinae = beloved, friend)

Thanks for your help everyone!
posted by Drama Penguin at 8:49 PM on June 14, 2011

Best answer: FWIW, here are some poetic-sounding national capitals, if you want something other than the super-well-known London/Moscow/Tokyo tier:

Astana
Asunción
Bamako
Brasilia
Damascus
Hanoi
Jakarta
La Paz
Luanda
Monaco
Nicosia
Pretoria
Pristina
Riga
Santiago
Seoul
Singapore
Sofia
Tirana
Victoria
Vienna
Yaounde
Yerevan
posted by Rhaomi at 9:12 PM on June 14, 2011

Least romantic-sounding capitals?

Ulaanbaatar, Bishkek, Ouagadougou, Cockburn Town.

Have fun!
posted by phunniemee at 12:34 AM on June 15, 2011