[AZ-Observing] When did Fleming discover Campbell's hydrogen star?
- From: Brian Skiff <Brian.Skiff@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: amastro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 16:42:56 -0700 (MST)
In the 1890s W. W. Campbell at Lick Observatory published a number of
short notes about the H-alpha emission star (and tiny nebula) BD+30 3639,
now commonly called 'Campbell's Hydrogen Star'. He of course did not stumble
upon the star at random, but instead knew to look at it with a spectroscope.
Though he doesn't cite it specifically, it is easy to surmise that the star
was found in the early surveys at Harvard. Campbell's first note was published
in 1893 in 'Astronomy and Astro-physics', which was a precursor to the
'Astrophysical Journal' (no longer hyphenated), which began in 1895.
Digging through the Harvard publications in the Lowell archive, I found
the citation to Williamina Fleming's discovery announcement. This was in
'Astronomische Nachrichten', v125, p155, 1890. She found the star from
examination of three objective-prism plates taken on 18, 23, and 25 June 1890.
She must have worked quickly, since she also mentions confirming the star's
emission spectrum visually on 25 June with a spectroscope attached to the
Harvard 15-inch refractor. The paper submitted to the journal is dated 1 July!
So not only is she the proper discoverer but also the first person to
make a detailed visual inspection of the object. (The BD of course resulted
from a visual survey but only for rough coordinates and magnitude.)
This object is mag. 10.0, nearly stellar, and appears reddish in
large aperture. Position is: 19 34 45.2 +30 30 59 (J2000) in southern Cygnus.
\Brian
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