Gould designations for

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

s are similar to Flamsteed designations in the way that they number stars within a

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

in increasing order of

right ascension Right ascension (abbreviated RA; symbol ) is the angular distance of a particular point measured eastward along the celestial equator from the Sun at the March equinox to the (hour circle of the) point in question above the earth. When paired w ...

. Each star is assigned an integer (starting at 1), followed by " G. " (or occasionally followed directly by a "G" without a space), and then the Latin

genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

of the

it lies in. See 88 modern constellations for a list of constellations and the genitive forms of their names. They were assigned according to the stars' positions in

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...

1875.0, and over time are affected by

Precession of the Equinoxes In astronomy, axial precession is a gravity-induced, slow, and continuous change in the orientation of an astronomical body's rotational axis. In the absence of precession, the astronomical body's orbit would show axial parallelism. In particu ...

. Due to the star's

proper motion Proper motion is the astrometric measure of the observed changes in the apparent places of stars or other celestial objects in the sky, as seen from the center of mass of the Solar System, compared to the abstract background of the more dista ...

s or cpm., some stars may now occur out of order. Gould designations first appeared in Uranometria Argentina, a catalogue published in 1879 by

Benjamin Apthorp Gould Benjamin Apthorp Gould (September 27, 1824 – November 26, 1896) was a pioneering American astronomer. He is noted for creating the ''Astronomical Journal'', discovering the Gould Belt, and for founding of the Argentine National Observatory and ...

. Many of these designations have fallen out of use, though for many relatively bright southern stars (which are too far south to bear Flamsteed designations), Gould numbers remain the only simple designations available without referring to cumbersome catalogue numbers.

List of constellations with Gould star designations

Gould's catalogue includes 66 constellations (some of which are also covered partially or fully by Flamsteed numbers):

33 constellations that contain both Flamsteed and Gould numbers

33 constellations that contain only Gould numbers

†

30 Doradus The Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) is a large H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), forming its south-east corner (from Earth's perspective). Discovery The Tarantula Nebula was observed by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille duri ...

and

47 Tucanae 47 Tucanae, or 47 Tuc (also designated NGC 104) is a globular cluster located in the constellation Tucana. It is about away from Earth, and 120 light years in diameter. 47 Tuc can be seen with the naked eye, with an apparent magnitude of 4.1. It ...

are Bode numbers, not Gould designations.

Stars known primarily by Gould designations

Many of these were listed in the cross-index by Kostjuk,Kostjuk, N.D. HD-DM-GC-HR-HIP-Bayer-Flamsteed Cross Index, 2002, http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/Cat?IV/27A (accessed 2006/12/26) with their Gould numbers supplied as their supposed Flamsteed number. From this cross-index, the designations found their way into other sources, including SIMBAD. Many stars commonly known by their Gould designations are nearby stars.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gould Designation Astronomical catalogues *

List of constellations with Gould star designations

33 constellations that contain both Flamsteed and Gould numbers

33 constellations that contain only Gould numbers

Stars known primarily by Gould designations

See also

References