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View Full Version here: : Naming Deep Sky Objects


glenc
11-12-2012, 04:48 AM
If someone finds a comet, the comet is named after them, and rightly so.

I think it would be good if the same applied when someone finds only one deep sky object, or only one galaxy etc.

For example Caroline Herschel only found one galaxy, NGC 253.
I think it should be called Caroline's galaxy.

Nicolas Lacaille only found one galaxy too, M83.
Let's call it Lacaille's galaxy.

Generally I am not in favour of giving extra names to objects, but I think these people deserve recognition.

Blue Skies
11-12-2012, 09:24 PM
I think they do already. What about Malin 1, the galaxy David Malin found in a photo he took?

GraemeT
11-12-2012, 10:01 PM
Yes, THEY do it already. A neighbour brought me a star chart with the star named after her circled - a 9th magnitude blip in Gemini - and asked me how to find it. Her family had paid $? to have a star named after her!
There's one born every minute.

glenc
13-12-2012, 01:54 AM
Some recent discoveries have been credited to the finder, but most of the old ones have not.