Pronunciations...

If you're like me, you'll appreciate this link:

http://www.corona_borealis.homestead.com/files/pronouncing_the_stars.htm

Although, does ANYONE actually say:

"7] Rigel: RYE-i'l" ? Or is that an error?

When you start off in astronomy completely alone, you develop your own idiosyncratic way of saying things. Now that I hang around other astronomers from time to time, I find myself carefully constructing sentences to avoid saying "Ophiucus".

But you may be thinking to yourself, "why is this in the 'Equipment' forum?"
Because while one can, indeed, find sites like the one above, no one seems to give pronunciations for names of optical designs and designers, etc.

For example...I'm really not actually sure if I'm saying "Plossl" correctly (there's an umlaut over the "o", right? Where's the accent?). Or what exactly is the vowel sound in the first syllable of "Konig" (also umlauted, I believe)?

Here in the US Plossl (Ploessl) tends to rhyme with John Stossel's (ABC's Give Me a Break guy) last name, but it SHOULD be pronounced with an 'er' sound where in the US we substitute a short 'o'. It's not actually an 'er' sound, but that is the closest approximation in English vowel sounds. I've never met Markus Ludes in person, but I wonder how he deals with this. I mean, if you actually say Plossl's name correctly in the US, do people generally know what you are talking about? I tried when I started out and then gave up.

For Konig (Koenig), though, I actually do say ker'nig, like colonel but with an 'ig' ending instead of 'el'. Again, I think this is the closest approximation using English vowels.

Probably a lot of people, including myself, hear the name "Abby" in our heads when we see Ernst Abbe's last name, but we should hear "Abba" instead.
--
Mike

Jim:

As a student of German, I'd have to say you're right! Plössl does have an umlaut which makes the 'o' tricky. To say anything with an umlaut, just say the English equivalent, but round your lips (almost like you're going to whistle).

König is another one of those weird german eyepieces. Use the same principle above for pronunciation. Just an interesting tid-bit thought: König is King in English.

Hope I was of some help!

-Adam