stars ones eye  Stars named after people  Over the past few
centuries, a small number of stars have been named after
individual people. It is common in astronomy for objects to be
given names, in accordance with accepted astronomical naming
conventions. However, most stars are not given proper names,
relying on either long-standing traditional names (usually from
the Arabic), or catalogue numbers.   The naming of astronomical
bodies is controlled by the International Astronomical Union
(IAU), which normally names features on planetary surfaces after
people, and then lays down strict standards for this naming -
craters on Mercury, for example, are named after "famous
deceased artists, musicians, painters and authors". However, the
right of choosing names for asteroids is given to the
discoverer, pending IAU approval. This tends to produce an
idiosyncratic collection of names - whilst many are named after
mythological figures, or prominent astronomers, many more are
named after popular musicians, obscure histor