What is the Name our Moon?

[Gryphin]

Since the purpose of assigning names is to communicate and since most people you are likely to use the words the Moon or Luna with will know what you are talking about it comes down to
"A rose called by any other...."

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by spoon:
The answer is: The Moon

The source is: HERE

Unfortunatly the source offers no support for his claim, other then the statement that the IAU designates it thus. But looking at the IAU website I can find no confirmation of this fact. I suppose they have some books somewhere, but nothing on their website I can find.

I have found several other websites purporting to be authorities who adhere to the Moon as the name, but the general attitude seems to be it's a stupid question for people to be asking an astronomer and we are all wasting their time. It's almost as if they don't know the name, and so they try to make us all feel stupid for asking.

What do you mean what's the name of the Moon? It's the Moon you idiot. Now go away, I have some star clusters to categorize.

I have this feeling someday we are going regret not having an actual name for it.

Some where in a cantina in a galaxy far far away...
Those human are so dumb.
How dumb are they?
Humans are so dumb, that millions of years of sentience and the best name they could come up with for their moon is: Moon!

I say Bob is a good name. Better yet, what about Bob Luna?

[rdouglass]

I suggest (in honor of SEIV) that we re-name the moon (or the Moon, or Luna, whatever) to "Sol IIIA".................

[spoon]

Originally posted by rdouglass:
I suggest (in honor of SEIV) that we re-name the moon (or the Moon, or Luna, whatever) to "Sol IIIA".................

Yes!!!

[spoon]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Unfortunatly the source offers no support for his claim, other then the statement that the IAU designates it thus. But looking at the IAU website I can find no confirmation of this fact. I suppose they have some books somewhere, but nothing on their website I can find.

Except for this bit here: This Bit Here

[PvK]

Personally, I think astronomers are a step behind sci-fi writers on this one. Sol, Earth or Terra, and Luna are acceptable proper names. Having more than one name for the same thing is passable, too, especially with multiple Languages and cultures.

However, "the solar system" and "the moon" are just generic terms, and naturally refer to a particular one when the speaker happens to be in a solar system, or when on a planet with one moon, and not talking about space travel at the time. They don't cut it for proper names, though. Basic logic failure there. Yes, when defining a language based on how it's used, naturally those will pass that test. Kind of like a medieval peasant talking about "the river" because he never leaves his home village and never sees another village. Or someone talking about "the cat" meaning their cat.

PvK

[geoschmo]

I prefer Solar System as a proper name refering to our system orbitting Sol, and stellar system as the generic form. But I guess I don't get the final say.

It's ironic I think that astronomers, the people most abundantly aware how insignificant our little place in the cosmos is, cling to such "terra-centric" nomenclature.