16 Virginis - Naming Question

[Via Lactea]

Hi guys,

I am looking - as usual - for help from y'all boffins I've Googled the life out of this and can't find anything, really.

There's a star in Virgo called c Virginis (16 Virginis)

j2000 RA: 12hrs 20mins 20.8s, Dec: +3 degrees 18' 44.6"

My question is a basic one: anyone have any idea why it would be called "c"? C isn't even in the Greek alphabet, and given its magnitude it can hardly be a substitute for Kappa, which is another star altogether.

http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-basic?Ident=16+Virginis&submit=SIMBAD+search

Not a big deal, I'm just curious... hope you are all better than well on what here in Glasgow is a glorious Saturday afternoon

Steven

[AstroJOE]

Hi Steven

I think 16 Virginis is the name of the star. The addition of a letter....a, b, c etc usually refers to any exoplanets that are discovered to be orbiting the star I think.

For example, 61 Virginis 'c' is the name of the 3rd Exoplanet that orbits the star 61 Virginis. The closest Exoplanet to that star is called 61 Virginis 'a'.

That is my understanding any how.

James

[AstroJOE]

Actually, scrap my last post! I've just found something on the web which I think answers your question. I've highlighted the relevant bit in red

A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek letter, followed by the genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer designations contained 1,564 stars.

Most of the brighter stars were assigned their first systematic names by the German astronomer Johann Bayer in 1603, in his star atlas Uranometria. Bayer assigned a lower-case Greek letter, such as alpha (α), beta (β), gamma (γ), etc., to each star he catalogued, combined with the Latin name of the star’s parent constellation in genitive (possessive) form. (See 88 modern constellations for the genitive forms.) For example, Aldebaran is designated α Tauri (pronounced Alpha Tauri), which means "Alpha of the constellation Taurus".^[1]

A single constellation may contain fifty or more stars, but the Greek alphabet has only twenty-four letters. When these ran out, Bayer began using Latin letters: upper case A, followed by lower case b through z (omitting j and v), for a total of another 24 letters.^[2] Bayer never went beyond z,^[2] but later astronomers added more designations using both upper and lower case Latin letters, the upper case letters following the lower case ones in general. Examples include s Carinae (s of the constellation Carina), d Centauri (d of the constellation Centaurus), G Scorpii (G of the constellation Scorpius), and N Velorum (N of the constellation Vela). The last upper-case letter used in this way was Q.

[Via Lactea]

Joe, I simply cannot thank you enough. That makes total sense. Such a little thing to bother me, but bother me it did, and now at last - thanks to you - I have the answer I was looking for... cheers mate Steven

[Via Lactea]

I'll state my thanks again by using your proper name James!

Clear skies to you mate

[AstroJOE]

It would have bothered me all weekend as well so I'm glad I managed to find it!

Clear skies to you also Steven

James