Star numbers

[Mahratta]

Hello, as new and would like to find out more about star Numbers, does every star have a unique number, if so, can a telescope track a star if the number is entered, and also will it show what constellation that star is in..

Any help

Thank you

[ronin]

Every star does not have a number, too many and we cannot see most.

I assume that you are referring to HIP and SAO designations, as in SAO 133556  ??

If a star has a designation then that also will have an RA and Dec value and all a scope does is look up the number, then read the RA+Dec. Scope goes to those coordinates and tracks that position in the sky.

For the hell of it you could pick an RA+Dec that is blank, the scope would point at the blank bit and track it. Doesn't have to be anything there.

Names and numbers are the same - a string of charactors - so Belelgeuse = SAO 113271 = HIP 27989 = Alpha Orion. The Constant is:

RA = 5  55  10.3053

Dec = +7  24  25.426

There several designations available HIP and SAO seem to be common ones, so only mentioned these.

SAO and HIP and many others do not really say what constellation it is in, Alpha Orion does but not the numerical designations.

[Cornelius Varley]

Hello and welcome to SGL.  The Skywatcher Synscan handset, for example, has a database of over 42000 celestial objects. These include Messier objects (star clusters and nebelua), the Caldwell catalogue, New General Catalogue (NGC), Index Catalogue (IC) - both of these contain star clusters and nebula,  the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory  star catalogue (SAO), double stars, variable stars, named stars and planets. The full SAO catalogue contains over 290,000 stars so only  a selected number of these are included in the database. If the star has a name or SAO catalogue number then the mount will be able to slew to that object and then continue to track it. If you know the right ascension and declination coordinates of the star you should be able to put the values into the handset and the mount should slew towards it.

[Mahratta]

Hello ronin,

Thanks for the reply.

Does this mean anything to you.

RA 17h 20m 06.67s

De 81 49 24.3

HD: TYC 4581-948-1

Where in the sky would i find it. What constellation is in showing.

[ronin]

Not a thing to me.

http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=TYC+4581-948-1

It is a star apparently

[gkec]

http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=TYC+4581-948-1

Looking at the Dec and the stars nearby in the link it looks like it is in Ursa Minor

[ronin]

Tried Stellarium and it puts Ursa Minor in the middle of the screen but would have been nice if it had put a x at the position.

So looks like UMi, with a slight possibility of Draco.

[gkec]

It's quite close to ε UMi so I would say definitely UMi.

[ronin]

I, perhaps foolishly, expected stellarium to put a circle to mark the coordinates. All I got was a normal screen with UMi and Draco sat more or less in the middle. And since Draco wraps around UMi to an extent it was either or just not able to be specific.