[vsnet-chat 245] Re: Q:rule of nomenclature of new variables

[ebroens@innet.be (Eric Broens)]

Hello Fraser and VSnet-chatters,

>An example of the publicity problem which may interest VSNET readers,
>from a story I read years ago.  Last century, a Dutch astronomer
>suggested that all variables should be named numerically by
>constellation - eg: "V1 Ori, V2 Ori, V3..." etc. He pointed out that
>using letters (R Ori, S Ori, etc) was confusing (because some
>nonvariable stars were lettered too), awkward to catalogue, and that
>astronomers would eventually run out of letters in some constellations.
>
>This good idea was published in a Dutch scientific journal in the Dutch
>language; and was completely ignored by other variable star researchers
>of the 19th century - most of whom could read only English, French, or
>German; and read only articles in these languages.
>
>The idea was rediscovered many years later when some constellations
>_had_ finally reached "QZ" , and the names continued "V335", "V336",
>and so on.  I think the cataloguers claimed this as a new idea and
>pondered "why weren't numbers used in the beginning?"
>
>I would be interested to learn more details of this story.


It was the Dutch astronomer Nijland who proposed this uniform system. In
'Ver舅derliche Sterne' (Hoffmeister - Richter - Wenzel) is explained that
this system was rejected because the system of Argelander was used in the
literature for decades and because a lot of variable star types had been
designate according their prototypes (like RR Lyr, U Gem etc).

Best Regards,
Eric

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VVS Werkgroep Veranderlijke Sterren
Eric Broens
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BELGIUM

E-Mail: ebroens@innet.be
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