Saturday, 23 October 2010

history - Which stars have been named after astronomers?

You probably need someone better versed in the history of astronomy than me, but I'll give it a stab.



As you've already noticed, the Wikipedia article on stars named after people has some entries, and that's probably about it. In terms of modern naming procedures, we tend to use catalogue names. Unlike, say, asteroids, there's no systematic way of naming stars after people or anything else, so stars usually continue to be referred to only by catalogue number. Those rare stars that are named after people (or something else) are usually because they are now somehow historically associated with that system. Unless, of course, the catalogue is named after someone! Another exception are those very bright stars with pre-telescope names, but those aren't named after people (e.g. many scientific papers refer to Betelgeuse as such).



I guess in short, there's just no standard modern naming procedure by which a star can end up with a person's name, so few exist, and probably most are listed in the Wikipedia article.

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