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Flamsteed designation

AFlamsteed designationis a combination of a number and constellation name that uniquely identifies mostnaked eyestars in themodern constellationsvisible from southernEngland.They are named forJohn Flamsteedwho first used them while compiling hisHistoria Coelestis Britannica.(Flamsteed used a telescope,[1]and the catalog also includes some stars which are relatively bright but not necessarily visible with the naked eye.)

Northern hemisphere fromFlamsteed'sAtlas Coelestis

Description

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See also:IAU designated constellations
OrionandTaurusfrom Atlas Coelestis

Flamsteed designations forstarsare similar toBayer designations,except that they use numbers instead of Greek and Roman letters. Each star is assigned a number and the Latingenitiveof theconstellationit lies in (see88 modern constellationsfor a list of constellations and the genitive forms of their names). Flamsteed designations were assigned to 2554 stars. The numbers were originally assigned in order of increasingright ascensionwithin each constellation, but due to the effects ofprecessionthey are now slightly out of order in some places.

This method of designating stars first appeared in a preliminary version ofJohn Flamsteed'sHistoria Coelestis Britannicapublished byEdmond HalleyandIsaac Newtonin 1712 without Flamsteed's approval.[2][3]The final version of Flamsteed's catalogue published in 1725[4]after his death omitted the numerical designations altogether. The numbers now in use were assigned by the French astronomer,Joseph Jérôme de Lalandeand appeared in his 1783 almanac,Éphémérides des mouvemens célesteswhich contained a revised edition of Flamsteed's catalogue.[5]Lalande noted in his Introduction that he got the idea from the unofficial 1712 edition.[6]

Flamsteed designations gained popularity throughout the eighteenth century, and are now commonly used when no Bayer designation exists. Where a Bayer designation with a Greek letter does exist for a star, it is usually used in preference to the Flamsteed designation. (Flamsteed numbers are generally preferred to Bayer designations withRomanletters.) Examples of well-known stars that are usually referred to by their Flamsteed numbers include51 Pegasi,and61 Cygni.Flamsteed designations are often used instead of the Bayer designation if the latter contains an extra attached number; for example, "55 Cancri"is more common than" Rho1Cancri ".

There are examples of stars, such as10 Ursae MajorisinLynx,bearing Flamsteed designations for constellations in which they do not lie, just as there are for Bayer designations, because of the compromises that had to be made when the modern constellation boundaries were drawn up.

Flamsteed's catalogue covered only the stars visible fromGreat Britain,and therefore stars of the far southern constellations have no Flamsteed numbers. Some stars, such as the nearby star 82 Eridani, were named in a major southern-hemisphere catalog calledUranometria Argentina,byBenjamin Gould;these areGould numbers,rather than Flamsteed numbers, and should be differentiated with a G, as in82 G. Eridani.Except for a handful of cases, Gould numbers are not in common use. Similarly, Flamsteed-like designations assigned by other astronomers (for example,Hevelius) are no longer in general use. (A well-known exception is theglobular cluster47 TucanaefromBode's catalog.)

84 stars entered in Flamsteed's catalog are errors and proved not to exist in the sky:[7]All of them except 11 Vulpeculae were plotted on his star charts.

  • Flamsteed observedUranusin 1690 but did not recognize it as aplanetand entered it into his catalog as a star called "34 Tauri".
  • 11 Vulpeculaewas a nova, now known asCK Vulpeculae.
  • Many of them were caused by arithmetic errors made by Flamsteed.

List of constellations using Flamsteed star designations

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There are 52 constellations that primarily use Flamsteed designations. Stars are listed in the appropriate lists for the constellation, as follows:

In addition, several stars inPuppis,and a small number of stars inCentaurusandLupus,have been given Flamsteed designations.

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Telescope: Flamsteed's 7-foot Equatorial Sextant (1676)".
  2. ^"Naming Astronomical Objects".International Astronomical Union(IAU).Retrieved2015-09-10.
  3. ^"Naming Stars".Students for the Exploration and Development of Space(SEDS).Retrieved2009-01-30.
  4. ^Flamsteed, John (1725).Historia Coelestis Britannica.H. Meere.
  5. ^de Lalande, Joseph Jérôme (1783).Éphémérides des mouvemens celestas.Hérissant. p. cxxxiii.
  6. ^de Lalande, Joseph Jérôme (1783).Éphémérides des mouvemens celestas.Hérissant. p. xxv.
  7. ^Wagman, Morton (2003).Lost Stars: Lost, Missing and Troublesome Stars from the Catalogues of Johannes Bayer, Nicholas Louis de Lacaille, John Flamsteed, and Sundry Others.Blacksburg, Virginia: The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company.ISBN978-0-939923-78-6.
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