Kapteyn's Star - History

History

The star now known as Kapteyn's Star was originally cataloged by the Dutch astronomer, Jacobus Kapteyn, in 1898. While he was reviewing star charts and photographic plates he noted the star's very high proper motion of more than 8 arc seconds per year. Later, the star became referred to as Kapteyn's Star, in honor of its discoverer. At that time, it had the highest proper motion of any star known, dethroning Groombridge 1830. With the discovery of Barnard's Star in 1916, Kapteyn's Star dropped to second place, where it remains.

Read more about this topic:  Kapteyn's Star

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.”
    —Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)

    “You treat world history as a mathematician does mathematics, in which nothing but laws and formulas exist, no reality, no good and evil, no time, no yesterday, no tomorrow, nothing but an eternal, shallow, mathematical present.”
    —Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)

    “There is no example in history of a revolutionary movement involving such gigantic masses being so bloodless.”
    —Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)