Why is Messier 110 called The Edward Young Star

[Agerskov]

Hi all

The last hour I have tried to find out why M110 is called The Edward Young Star without any luck. 

I can see there is an English poet from the 17th century who have written a list of night poems where the quote "the devout astronomer is mad" is from. 

But I can't see the link to the elliptical galaxy Messier 110 - which is by the way first added to Messier's list in 20th century and is one of the two satellite dwarf galaxies next to the Andromeda Galaxy.

I hope one of you can link me to a source or just tell why.

Thanks in advance  

Edited November 30, 2022 by Agerskov

[Knighty2112]

More importantly why is it called a star also? Be interested to know the answer too!

[Agerskov]

I got the idea to look at the Talk page of the Wikipedia article of Messier 110. 

Here a former anonymous edit of the article is listed where it state that the name Edward Young Star was given to M110 as a gift for the astronomer Edward George Burrows Young just before his dead in 2014 aged 92 year. 

Then I googled the name and find a genealogy page where it states the same death date and that he was in Bristol in England.  

Now I have send a message to Bristol Astronomical Society and asked if they know anything about this.

I am still interested if there any of you here at Stargazer's Lounge know anything - even if it is named after another Edward Young - because in 2014 any astronomer will have called M110 a galaxy and in the 19th and first half of 20th century a nebula. So why The Edward Young Star?

[PrairieStarGazer]

I wouldn't put too much stock in anything on Wikipedia, especially anonymous edits. If it was one of those "star name gifts" it has zero validity anyways. I highly doubt any astronomer, amateur or otherwise, has ever called it the Edward Young Star

[woldsman]

Weird that “The Edward Young star” appellation crops up a lot. Not the first time either that the query “why?” has been raised. Transmission by wiki may explain a lot as people tend to  repeat whatever they find there!

[Agerskov]

I have received a message from Bristol Astronomical Society that the one answering the mail doesn't knew Edward Young or heard the story but will ask the older members. 

I have looked through the history of the Wikipedia article and found that the alternative name Edward Young Star has been on in the article five times where the last three times it was under two hours and from mobile phones - the last two in United Kingdom and the third from Croatia. 

The first time it was 18 months from primo December 2014 to ultimo May 2016 and the edit was made from an IP number in Bristol. 

The second time it was almost 2½ year from medio May 2017 to late October 2019 also from an IP number in Bristol.

From almost the same date another alternative name Lucida Andromedae was listed from The Catalogue of One Thousand Named Galaxies by astronomer Gerard Bodifee and  Michel Berger. 

All these edits are not from users on Wikipedia but from different IP addresses. But the last two have used the frase "keen astronomer Edward Young" which could imply it is the same editor. 

The earliest site I have found using the name Edward Young Star is from March 29th 2015 (which is a copy of the Wikipedia article from December 2014). 

One of the Wikipedia users who undid one of these edits states that the name Edward Young Star must be used in a scientific paper before it will be added as an additional name in the article. 

But the name has been used in the book "From Cave Art to Hubble - A History of Astronomical Record Keeping" on page 116 by Jonathan Powell from December 2019.

Powell is a columnist and writer of astronomical topics in news papers and a contributer to the BBC's Sky at Night magazine.

So maybe I should ask him where he has the name Edward Young Star from.

Edited December 1, 2022 by Agerskov