Stars can come by their names in strange ways.
Moreover, there is a distinct lack of consistency between naming and brightness, second magnitude Gamma Cassiopeia having no proper name and the two brighter stars in Delphinus , the Dolphin, though both of fourth magnitude, both honored with such names. If they had not been in such a jewel-like constellation, they probably would have been ignored. English astronomer Thomas Webb finally disclosed that the stars are the reversed Latinized names of the assistant to the observatory's astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, Nicolaus Venator, so honoring him. Its status is somewhat uncertain, some observers calling it a hydrogen-fusing main sequence star, others a subgiant that might just be starting to evolve. At a distance of 240 light years, the star appears to have a luminosity 195 times that of the Sun.