Variable stars named after people?

Hello John,

Are you sure you don't mean the link below?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_named_after_people 

That one seems to work better, for me anyway.

Conan 

Romano's star in M33

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romano's_star

Burnhams Celestial Handbook lists:

Andrew's Star  NSV2537  page 290 and Pearce's Star  AO Cas page 503.

Richard

CH UMa was, for a time after discovery, called Goranskij's object, at least by Swedish amateurs.

The variable part of α CVn (the prototype of ACV variable stars) is officially called 'Cor Caroli' after an (also variable) English king named Charles.

There was "Dorrit's Hypernova" (so-called by AAVSOers)

See:

AAVSO Abstracts, April 1963

"The First Hypernova"

Harlan Smith and E. Dorrit Hoffleit

https://www.aavso.org/aavso-abstracts-1951-1971

Not quite what you intend I don't think, but there is "Hertzsprung's Enigmatic Object".  A transient that appeared on only one of the Harvard plates.  But it was certainly real, and not a plate defect, because the plate was a double exposure (all stars appear twice, side-by-side, and it appears in both exposures).  It's brightness was different on the two exposures.  Of course, it could have been a transient comet-like coma around an asteroid-like object, rather than a transient associated with a distant star.

According to my notes, there was an article about it in Dec '67 S&T.  (But internet says it was 1962, not 1967).

It was fun looking this up in the plate stacks.  Once I opened the correct cabinet, and identified the right shelf, it was obvious:  the plate was in a bright new jacket -- the old one had worn out, due to so many people accessing it.  Sobering to think of the eyes that had looked at that piece of glass...

Gary Billings

Gary, Hertzsprung's Enigmatic Object was definitely of a stellar nature in some unique form. Comets simply don't behave in that fashion (i.e. that briefly flare up). This would be particularly so given that the two images on the Harvard plate were seperated only by a relatively brief interval in time.

Short of resulting from an incredibly bright outburst by an unrecognized flare star, or the brightest gamma ray burst ever, I can't imagine of any stellar event that would otherwise fit the bill.

And to Richard, I haven't heard anyone reference so-called Andrew's Star in decades! I don't even recall it being written up in Burnhams. I'll have to dust my ancient copy off and have a look. My own attention to the "star" was elicted by an article in S&T at some point in the mid to late 1960's, shortly after I had launched my career in variable star observing with the AAVSO. I recall that my long ago monthly reports to HQ included quite a large number of always negative observations of the supposed object for a couple of years.

J.Bortle   (BRJ)

Dear Colleagues,

Thanks for all your interesting suggestions.  I shall be off to the literature to pursue them.

John

I just stumbled upon another one: "Hanny's Voorwerp”. This is essentially a quasar ionization echo, quite rare, known thanks to a citizen scientist (she is a Dutch school teacher) who participated in Galaxy Zoo…

Best wishes - clear skies,

Stella.