Re: UN Ship Names

><SNIP>
>
>Good idea!  Some of the specific names you listed are rather
>American/Western-specific, though.  And I'd shy away from naming ship
>types after man-made features.  I'd stick with natural features.  Also,
>you could go up in scale:
>
>Galaxy Class
>Nebula Class
>Star Class (Antares, Ross, etc.)

Just a minor point for ship-namers, 'Ross' isn't a standalone name
for a star. The Ross stars are named after an astronomer named Ross,
and are typically numbered (eg Ross 128, 154, 248, etc). These are
typically high-proper motion stars (I don't know offhand any other
properties these stars share).

A good source for star names (and other astro info), check out Chris
Dolan's page on Stars & Constellations:

   http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/

Another page, which has a link to a table of starnames w/translations,
is
Starname hosted by Steve Gibson:

   http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/~gibson/starnames/

And if you can't find enough named stars in there...  ;-)

Mk
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   o/		      ..     .
  /@		       .  .	      If you insist on reaching for a
  <|\			  .  )	      star, be prepared to take a long,
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   /		 o //*		      Indy - climber, astronomer,
adventurer
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