thumb|Gemini constellation map showing Castor, Pollux, Procyon and Beta Canis Minoris (Gomeisa)
Al-Dhira' and similar spellings (e.g. "Al-Dhirá'án", It may refer to a Bedouin asterism of an enlarged rampant Lion centered on Leo and stretching over a quarter of the sky with its forepaws at these two pairs of stars. However, it may originally have referred to the "measuring rods" meaning, but an astronomer whose native language was not Arabic supposed that it meant "the two forepaws" literally and invented the enlarged Lion constellation.
The fictional planet of Alderaan in Star Wars appears to have borrowed the name.