Many of the brighter stars are given names which are known as Bayer designations. These designations, which were introduced by Johann Bayer in his star atlas Uranometria (named after Urania) in 1603, consist of a Greek letter followed by the genitive (in Latin) of the name of the constellation in which the star lies. See List of constellations for a list of constellations and the genitive forms of their names.
Because the brightest star in many constellations is designated as Alpha, many people wrongly assume that Bayer ...
Alpha may refer to:
Alpha (letter), a letter in the Greek alphabet. α may be used as the symbol for:
Angle of attack in aerodynamics
In physics
Fine-structure constant, a fundamental physical constant
Alpha particle, form of particle radiation
H-alpha, or H-α, an emission line created by hydrogen atoms
In Bayer designation, the typically brightest star in a constellation
The significance level in stati ...
Epsilon Canis Majoris (ε CMa / ε Canis Majoris), is the second brightest star in the constellation Canis Major, and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky. It has the Bayer designation "epsilon" despite being the second brightest and not the fifth brightest star in its constellation. It also has the traditional name Adhara (sometimes spelled Adara). The name is from the Ar ...
In ancient times, only the Sun and Moon, a few hundred stars and the most easily visible planets had names. Over the last few hundred years, the number of identified astronomical objects has risen from hundreds to over a billion, and more are discovered every year. Astronomers need to be able to assign systematic designations to unambiguously identify all of these objects, and at the same time give names to the mo ...
The Beehive Cluster (also known as The Beehive, Praesepe, Open Cluster M44, Messier Object 44, Messier 44, M44, or NGC 2632) is an open cluster in the constellation Cancer.
The cluster was known to Aratus by 260 BC. M44 is visible to the naked eye at a distance of about 577 light-years away from Earth. The cluster is best observed with binoculars or with a low power wide field magnification in a telescope. It is one of the closer open clusters, only the Ursa Major Moving Cluster, the Hyades and the Pleiades are clo ...
Beta Ceti (β Cet / β Ceti) is the brightest star in the constellation Cetus. Although it has the Bayer designation "beta", it is actually brighter than Alpha Ceti. It also has the traditional names Deneb Kaitos or Diphda.
Deneb Kaitos is easy to locate due to its location in an otherwise dark corner of the sky.
Deneb Kaitos has a spectral type falling on the border between G and K, making it a yellowish-orange star somewhat cooler than the Sun. In spite of its cooler nature, Deneb Kaitos is several times ...
Alpha Librae (α Lib / α Librae) is the second brightest star in the constellation Libra (despite its Bayer designation as "alpha"). It also has the traditional name Zubenelgenubi.
Alpha Librae is located approximately 77 light years from the Sun. It is actually a visual binary consisting of two stars separated in the sky by an angular distance of 231" (3'51"). The brighter of the two is a white star of spectral type A3, with an apparent brightness of 2.8 and an absolute brightness of 1.1, designated alpha-2 Librae (α< ...
The Bayer designation Beta Sagittarii (β Sgr / β Sagittarii) is shared by two star systems, β¹ Sagittarii and β² Sagittarii, in the constellation Sagittarius. The two stars are separated by 0.36° on the sky. Beta Sagittarii also has the traditional name Arkab, from the Arabic عرقوب carqūb meaning hamstring.
Beta Sagittarii - β¹ Sagittarii.
Beta-1 Sagittarii, also called Arkab Prior since it leads β² across the sky, is a bin ...
Albireo (β Cyg / β Cygni / Beta Cygni) is the third brightest star in the constellation Cygnus. Although it has the Bayer designation "beta", it is actually fainter than Gamma Cygni.
Since Cygnus is "the swan", and Albireo is located at the head of the swan, it is sometimes called the "beak star". It also forms the "Northern Cross" along with Deneb, Delta Cygni and Eta Cygni.
The name of the star have come to originate by misunderstandings and wrong translations. The name of the star was originally al-Minhar al-Daja ...
55 Cancri (abbreviated 55 Cnc; Bayer designation ρ1 Cancri, Rho-1 Cancri) is a nearby 6th magnitude star in the constellation Cancer. The star is a binary system. The primary component is, like our Sun, a yellow dwarf, but slightly less massive and luminous. Secondary is a distant dim red dwarf. Distance to the system is 41 light years. The brighter component is visible through binoc ...
Betelgeuse (Alpha (α) Orionis) is a semiregular variable star located about 450 light-years away [1]. It is the second brightest star in the constellation Orion, and the tenth brightest star in the nighttime sky. Although it has the Bayer designation "alpha", it is not as bright as Rigel (Beta Orionis). It is a vertex of the Winter Triangle asterism.
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant, one of the physically largest stars known. If it was placed at the center of our solar system, its outer surface would extend well beyond the orbit ...
Alpha Arietis (α Ari / α Arietis) is the brightest star in the constellation Aries. It also has the traditional names Hamal and El Nath. Its Flamsteed designation is 13 Arietis, but this is very rarely used because it is a bright star with a Bayer designation.
The name "Hamal" derives from the Arabic name for the constellation as a whole, Al Ħamal, "the sheep". Because of the confusion between star and constellation, the star is also (rarely) referred to as راس ح ...
41 Arietis is a star in the constellation Aries. It also has the traditional name Bharani. It does not possess a Greek letter Bayer designation, since this star was added in former times to the now-obsolete constellation Musca Borealis, but is sometimes designated c Arietis.
41 Arietis belongs to the spectral class B8Vn, and has a stellar magnitude of +3.61. It is 160 light-years from Earth.
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Castor (α Gem / α Geminorum / Alpha Geminorum) is the second brightest star in the constellation Gemini and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky. Although it has the Bayer designation "alpha", it is actually fainter than Beta Geminorum (Pollux).
Castor and Pollux are the two "heavenly twin" stars that give the constellation Gemini (meaning "twins" in Latin) its name.
Astronomically, Castor was discovered to be a visual binary in 1719, with the magnitude of its components being 2.8 and 2.0. The separation of ...
The Bayer designation Chi Sagittarii (χ Sgr / χ Sagittarii) is shared by three star systems in the constellation Sagittarius. The brightest of these, χ¹ Sagittarii and χ³ Sagittarii are separated by 0.56° on the sky. The dimmer χ² Sagittarii is located between them, 0.10° from χ¹.
Chi Sagittarii - χ¹ Sagittarii.
Chi-1 Sagittarii is a binary star. The primary is a spectral type A5 dwarf. The companion is approximately 0.12 arcseconds ...
The Bayer designation Xi Sagittarii (ξ Sgr / ξ Sagittarii) is shared by two stars, ξ¹ Sagittarii and ξ² Sagittarii, in the constellation Sagittarius. The two stars are separated by 0.46° on the sky.
Because they are close to the ecliptic, these stars can be occulted by the Moon and very rarely by planets. The last occultation of ξ² Sagittarii by a planet took place ...
Coma Berenices (Latin for Berenice's Hair) is a traditional asterism that has since become a constellation. It is located near Leo, and was originally considered Leo's tail.
Coma Berenices - Notable features.
Coma Berenices contains the North Galactic Pole, at right ascension 12h 51.42m and declination 27° 07.8′ (epoch J2000.0).
The constellation is not particularly bright, having no stars brighter than fourth magnitude. β Comae Berenices is the brightest star in the constellation, at magn ...
Variable stars are named using a variation on the Bayer designation format of an identifying label (as described below) combined with the Latin genitive of the name of the constellation in which the star lies. See List of constellations for a list of constellations and the genitive forms of their names.
The current naming system is:
Stars with existing Bayer designations are not given new designations.
Otherwise, start with the letter R and go through Z.
Continue with RR...RZ, then use SS...SZ, TT...TZ a ...
Zeta (upper case Ζ, lower case ζ) is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 7. Unlike the other Greek letters, this letter did not take its name from the Phoenician letter it was derived from, zayin; it was given a new name on the pattern of eta and theta.
The lower-case letter ζ is used as symbol for:
The Riemann zeta function and other zeta functions in mathematics.
In polymer dynamics, the coefficient of viscous friction.
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Canes Venatici (Latin for hunting dogs) is a small northern constellation that was introduced by Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century. It is supposed to represent the dogs Chara and Asterion held on a leash by Boötes.
Canes Venatici - Notable features.
Canes Venatici is one of three constellations that represent dogs, along with Canis Major and Canis Minor. The constellation's brightest star is α CVn, whose proper name is Cor Caroli, named by Edmund Halley in memory of the English Ki ...
