Flamsteed designation
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combination of a number and constellation name that uniquely identifies most naked eye stars in the modern constellations visible from southern England
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- astronomical catalogue
- Named after
- John Flamsteed
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- topic's main category
- Category:Flamsteed objects
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Encyclopedic overview
Southern hemisphere from a French-language version of Flamsteed's Atlas Coelestis published in 1776 A Flamsteed designation is a combination of a number and constellation name that uniquely identifies most naked eye stars in the modern constellations visible from southern England. They are named after John Flamsteed, author of the Historia Coelestis Britannica, the first major star catalogue compiled with the aid of a telescope. Flamsteed’s own catalogue did not include what are now known as Flamsteed numbers, but its listing of stars in each constellation provided the basis for later astronomers to add them.
Description
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Flamsteed designation” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.