Lalande 8 AKA...?

[DEWLine]

I went looking and it turns out that Jérôme Lalande's star catalogue has been preserved and translated to English.

Having since discovered by such means that Lalande 8 - from John M. Ford's The Final Reflection - is in fact a real star, I am now trying to find out what names or catalogue numbers that star is currently best known by. Any suggestions on the matter? Apparently, as of 1847, it was deemed to be in the constellation Cassiopeia?

 

[publiusr]

I couldn’t say—last I heard that name it was with regard to Lagunans in one of the Terran Trade Authority books. Or a site of a wreck.

 

[Christopher]

The Internet Stellar Database doesn't have a Lalande 8. I tried entering the coordinates from the Lalande catalog into this star catalog (assuming the "North Polar Distance" column was a positive declination), but got no results. It may be necessary to correct for precession since epoch 1800.

 

[DEWLine]

SIMBAD wasn't able to provide me with answers either, nor VIZIER. They "know" that Lalande's full catalogue exists, but it hasn't been fully inputted into their files.

I expect that you're right about correcting for precession. I'll ask around, probably the gang at the Ottawa-Gatineau Astronomical Observers' Group (OAOG) to start with. Thanks for the pointer!

 

[BazBaziah]

I think the first thing you need to do is convert the epoch Jan 1st 1800 RA to the current J2000 one and then search that current RA.
I'm not 100% sure how to convert it and I'm guessing it's not straightforward, I will have to look into it?
Great new topic to get my old gray matter going.