<p>The names stored in the SIMBAD database are following some specific rules to be the most homogeneous as possible, if possible, as ACRONYM + format.</p>
<p>Some names largely found in the literature are stored behind the &quot;NAME&quot; prefix.
SIMBAD, also have an internal set of synonyms, and set of rewrite rules to allow users to query without too much constraints, that's why your query with <code>Epsilon Eridani</code> is recognized, and rewrote as <code>* eps Eri</code>.</p>
<p>In the dictionary of nomenclature, you can find quick description of the way stars are written from Bayern &amp; Flamsteed catalog and the way they are stored in SIMBAD:
<a href="https://cds.unistra.fr/cgi-bin/Dic-Simbad?" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://cds.unistra.fr/cgi-bin/Dic-Simbad?</a>*</p>
<p>In your case, <code>*</code> + greek letter on 3letters + constellation on 3letters.
In the documentation of SIMBAD, there is the list of the 3letters abbreviations:</p>
<p><a href="http://simbad.cds.unistra.fr/guide/chA.htx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://simbad.cds.unistra.fr/guide/chA.htx</a></p>
<p><a href="http://simbad.cds.unistra.fr/guide/chB.htx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://simbad.cds.unistra.fr/guide/chB.htx</a></p>
<p>My suggestion is to add the <code>ids</code> in the result from SIMBAD, and filter afterwards, NAMEs or *, and rewrite them as you prefer, using for instance:</p>
<pre><code># add all ids in the SIMBAD results
Simbad.add_votable_fields('ids')

# prepare a way to extract only prefered names
def filter_simbad_names(names):
  return list(filter(re.compile('(NAME .*|V?\* .*|Gaia DR3 .*)').match,re.split('\|',names)))
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-19T13:49:00.617Z
2024-08-19T13:49:00.617Z
Anaïs OBERTO
<p>Most stars have several different designations, including proper names in at least one Earth language (if they are visible to the unaided eye), Bayer and Flamsteed designations (if they are visible to the unaided eye), and catalog designations in various star catalogs which may include them.  Star catalogs usually include the name or abbreviation of the catalog followed by the star's number in the catalog.</p>
<p>It is perfectly possible that many of the 1,024 known stars closes to Earth have over a dozen different names and other designations, and that several of those designations are very commonly used.  I think it would be rather rare for one of the stars you are interested in to have one designation which almost everyone always uses and a few others that almost nobody uses.  Instead most may have two or more designations which are used almost equally often.</p>
<p>I believe that there are about 0.004 stars per cubic light year in our region of the Milky Way Galaxy. Thus there are about 250 cubic light years for every star in our region of space.  So the nearest 1,024 stars to Earth would occupy a volume of about 256,000 cubic light years. A cube with a volume of 256,047.87 cubic light years would be 63.5 light years on a side.</p>
<p>A sphere will have a volume of 256,004 cubic light years if it has a radius of 39.39 light years or 12.077029 parsecs.</p>
<p>So the 1,024 stars known to be closest to Earth should probably all be within a sphere centered on the solar system with a radius of about 40 light years or 12.2641 parsecs.</p>
<p>Wikipedia has list of the nearest stars, within about 20 light years or 6.13 parsecs.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_stars" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_stars</a></p>
<p>And it gives alternate designations for most of the stars it lists.</p>
<p>Wikipedia has other star lists which list stars at greater distances.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_20%E2%80%9325_light-years" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_20%E2%80%9325_light-years</a></p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_25%E2%80%9330_light-years" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_25%E2%80%9330_light-years</a></p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_30%E2%80%9335_light-years" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_30%E2%80%9335_light-years</a></p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_35%E2%80%9340_light-years" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_35%E2%80%9340_light-years</a>
And maybe you will need to look at some of the stars 40 to 45 lightyears from Earth.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_40%E2%80%9345_light-years" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_40%E2%80%9345_light-years</a></p>
<p>The Gleise Catalog of Nearby Stars should list most of the 1,024 nearest stars now known.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_Catalogue_of_Nearby_Stars" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_Catalogue_of_Nearby_Stars</a></p>
<p>Here is a link to Wikipedia's list of brightest stars.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_brightest_stars" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_brightest_stars</a></p>
<p>The list includes the stars which appear brightest as seen from Earth.  It uses the proper names and the Bayer designations of those stars.   I have sorted it by increasing distance in light years from Earth, and ten famous stars are listed.</p>
<p>Many of the stars in the various Wikipedia lists have their own articles in Wikipedia and elsewhere, and many of those articles should list several alternate designations of each star.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-11T02:01:12.710Z
2024-08-11T02:01:12.710Z
M. A. Golding
<p>I'm querying the gaia database with the python <code>astroquery</code> package to get the positions of the nearest 1024 stars and using simbad to get designations other than the gaia ones. Full script is as follows:</p>
<pre><code>from astroquery.simbad import Simbad
import astroquery.gaia

num_stars = 1024

query = f&quot;&quot;&quot;SELECT TOP {num_stars} *
FROM gaiadr3.gaia_source as dr3
ORDER BY dr3.distance_gspphot ASC
&quot;&quot;&quot;

job = astroquery.gaia.Gaia.launch_job(query)
table = job.get_results()

print(&quot;Got gaia results&quot;)

named = Simbad.query_objects(table[&quot;DESIGNATION&quot;])

print(&quot;Got simbad results&quot;)

named.keep_columns(&quot;MAIN_ID&quot;)

table.update(named)
table.write(&quot;data.csv&quot;, format = &quot;pandas.csv&quot;)
</code></pre>
<p>However, the simbad designations are not as regular as I'd like. For example it refers to what I call Epsilon Eridani as <code>* eps Eri</code> where I'd prefer to have the full name. Annoyingly, simbad is aware of the name with <code>Simbad.query_objectids(&quot;epsilon eridani&quot;)</code> returning the following:</p>
<pre><code>ID
b'GJ 144.0'
b'GJ 144'
b'HIP 16537'
b'Gaia DR3 5164707970261890560'
b'RAVE J033255.8-092730'
b'TIC 118572803'
b'8pc 310.75'
b'PLX  742'
b'2MASS J03325591-0927298'
b'* eps Eri'
b'*  18 Eri'
b'1AXG J033256-0926'
b'2E   788'
b'2RE J033253-092646'
b'2RE J0332-092'
b'BD-09   697'
b'CCDM J03329-0927A'
b'Ci 20  241'
b'FK5  127'
b'GC  4244'
b'GCRV  1962'
b'GEN# +1.00022049'
b'HD  22049'
b'HIC  16537'
b'HR  1084'
b'IRAS 03305-0937'
b'IRC -10048'
b'JP11   792'
b'LFT  291'
b'LHS  1557'
b'LPM 158'
b'LTT  1675'
b'N30  726'
b'NLTT 11207'
b'PM 03306-0938'
b'PMC 90-93    91'
b'PPM 185905'
b'RAFGL  497'
b'RBS   439'
b'RE J0332-092'
b'RE J033255-092717'
b'ROT   531'
b'SACS  76'
b'SAO 130564'
b'SKY#  5366'
b'SPOCS  171'
b'TD1  2301'
b'TYC 5296-1533-1'
b'UBV    3410'
b'UBV M   9580'
b'V* eps Eri'
b'YZ   0  4513'
b'YZ  99   836'
b'Zkh  51'
b'[FS2003] 0134'
b'uvby98 100022049'
b'PLX  742.00'
b'1E 0330.5-0937'
b'1RXS J033256.4-092727'
b'2E 0330.5-0937'
b'2EUVE J0332-09.4'
b'EUVE J0332-09.4'
b'RX J0332.9-0927'
b'WDS J03329-0927A'
&quot;b'WDS J03329-0927Aa,Ab'&quot;
b'** BLA    2'
b'Gaia DR2 5164707970261630080'
b'** MBA    1A'
b'NAME Ran'
b'WEB  3160'
b'GES J03325495-0927294'
</code></pre>
<p>Is there a way to get it to return the common/wikipedia names instead? For another example, it returns <code>HD 1326</code> for a star that wikipedia calls <code>Groombridge 34</code>. <code>Simbad.query_objectids(&quot;HD 1326&quot;)</code> also returns <code>Gmb 34</code>.</p>
<p>This question has also been asked in a comment here: <a href="https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/46892/query-gaia-by-star-name#comment118627_46914">Query Gaia by star name</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-10T19:18:20.490Z
Notice how, in the list you give, none of the designations is exactly “Epsilon Eridani.” I would suppose the SIMBAD interface has some (hidden) algorithm to convert such names as “* eps Eri” to “Epsilon Eridani,” and that’s probably why you can’t find the full name in the database. You would need to implement a similar conversion algorithm.
Pierre Paquette
<gaia><simbad>
Getting commonly used star names from gaia data
xyz
# Getting commonly used star names from gaia data

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-08-10)

I'm querying the gaia database with the python `astroquery` package to get the positions of the nearest 1024 stars and using simbad to get designations other than the gaia ones. Full script is as follows:

```
from astroquery.simbad import Simbad
import astroquery.gaia

num_stars = 1024

query = f"""SELECT TOP {num_stars} *
FROM gaiadr3.gaia_source as dr3
ORDER BY dr3.distance_gspphot ASC
"""

job = astroquery.gaia.Gaia.launch_job(query)
table = job.get_results()

print("Got gaia results")

named = Simbad.query_objects(table["DESIGNATION"])

print("Got simbad results")

named.keep_columns("MAIN_ID")

table.update(named)
table.write("data.csv", format = "pandas.csv")

```

However, the simbad designations are not as regular as I'd like. For example it refers to what I call Epsilon Eridani as `* eps Eri` where I'd prefer to have the full name. Annoyingly, simbad is aware of the name with `Simbad.query_objectids("epsilon eridani")` returning the following:

```
ID
b'GJ 144.0'
b'GJ 144'
b'HIP 16537'
b'Gaia DR3 5164707970261890560'
b'RAVE J033255.8-092730'
b'TIC 118572803'
b'8pc 310.75'
b'PLX  742'
b'2MASS J03325591-0927298'
b'* eps Eri'
b'*  18 Eri'
b'1AXG J033256-0926'
b'2E   788'
b'2RE J033253-092646'
b'2RE J0332-092'
b'BD-09   697'
b'CCDM J03329-0927A'
b'Ci 20  241'
b'FK5  127'
b'GC  4244'
b'GCRV  1962'
b'GEN# +1.00022049'
b'HD  22049'
b'HIC  16537'
b'HR  1084'
b'IRAS 03305-0937'
b'IRC -10048'
b'JP11   792'
b'LFT  291'
b'LHS  1557'
b'LPM 158'
b'LTT  1675'
b'N30  726'
b'NLTT 11207'
b'PM 03306-0938'
b'PMC 90-93    91'
b'PPM 185905'
b'RAFGL  497'
b'RBS   439'
b'RE J0332-092'
b'RE J033255-092717'
b'ROT   531'
b'SACS  76'
b'SAO 130564'
b'SKY#  5366'
b'SPOCS  171'
b'TD1  2301'
b'TYC 5296-1533-1'
b'UBV    3410'
b'UBV M   9580'
b'V* eps Eri'
b'YZ   0  4513'
b'YZ  99   836'
b'Zkh  51'
b'[FS2003] 0134'
b'uvby98 100022049'
b'PLX  742.00'
b'1E 0330.5-0937'
b'1RXS J033256.4-092727'
b'2E 0330.5-0937'
b'2EUVE J0332-09.4'
b'EUVE J0332-09.4'
b'RX J0332.9-0927'
b'WDS J03329-0927A'
"b'WDS J03329-0927Aa,Ab'"
b'** BLA    2'
b'Gaia DR2 5164707970261630080'
b'** MBA    1A'
b'NAME Ran'
b'WEB  3160'
b'GES J03325495-0927294'

```

Is there a way to get it to return the common/wikipedia names instead? For another example, it returns `HD 1326` for a star that wikipedia calls `Groombridge 34`. `Simbad.query_objectids("HD 1326")` also returns `Gmb 34`.

This question has also been asked in a comment here: [Query Gaia by star name](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/46892/query-gaia-by-star-name#comment118627_46914).

**Tags:** gaia, simbad

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Notice how, in the list you give, none of the designations is exactly “Epsilon Eridani.” I would suppose the SIMBAD interface has some (hidden) algorithm to convert such names as “* eps Eri” to “Epsilon Eridani,” and that’s probably why you can’t find the full name in the database. You would need to implement a similar conversion algorithm.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2024-08-19. Score: 1

The names stored in the SIMBAD database are following some specific rules to be the most homogeneous as possible, if possible, as ACRONYM + format.

Some names largely found in the literature are stored behind the "NAME" prefix.
SIMBAD, also have an internal set of synonyms, and set of rewrite rules to allow users to query without too much constraints, that's why your query with `Epsilon Eridani` is recognized, and rewrote as `* eps Eri`.

In the dictionary of nomenclature, you can find quick description of the way stars are written from Bayern & Flamsteed catalog and the way they are stored in SIMBAD:
<https://cds.unistra.fr/cgi-bin/Dic-Simbad?>\*

In your case, `*` + greek letter on 3letters + constellation on 3letters.
In the documentation of SIMBAD, there is the list of the 3letters abbreviations:

<http://simbad.cds.unistra.fr/guide/chA.htx>

<http://simbad.cds.unistra.fr/guide/chB.htx>

My suggestion is to add the `ids` in the result from SIMBAD, and filter afterwards, NAMEs or \*, and rewrite them as you prefer, using for instance:

```
# add all ids in the SIMBAD results
Simbad.add_votable_fields('ids')

# prepare a way to extract only prefered names
def filter_simbad_names(names):
  return list(filter(re.compile('(NAME .*|V?\* .*|Gaia DR3 .*)').match,re.split('\|',names)))

```


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2024-08-11. Score: 0

Most stars have several different designations, including proper names in at least one Earth language (if they are visible to the unaided eye), Bayer and Flamsteed designations (if they are visible to the unaided eye), and catalog designations in various star catalogs which may include them. Star catalogs usually include the name or abbreviation of the catalog followed by the star's number in the catalog.

It is perfectly possible that many of the 1,024 known stars closes to Earth have over a dozen different names and other designations, and that several of those designations are very commonly used. I think it would be rather rare for one of the stars you are interested in to have one designation which almost everyone always uses and a few others that almost nobody uses. Instead most may have two or more designations which are used almost equally often.

I believe that there are about 0.004 stars per cubic light year in our region of the Milky Way Galaxy. Thus there are about 250 cubic light years for every star in our region of space. So the nearest 1,024 stars to Earth would occupy a volume of about 256,000 cubic light years. A cube with a volume of 256,047.87 cubic light years would be 63.5 light years on a side.

A sphere will have a volume of 256,004 cubic light years if it has a radius of 39.39 light years or 12.077029 parsecs.

So the 1,024 stars known to be closest to Earth should probably all be within a sphere centered on the solar system with a radius of about 40 light years or 12.2641 parsecs.

Wikipedia has list of the nearest stars, within about 20 light years or 6.13 parsecs.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_stars>

And it gives alternate designations for most of the stars it lists.

Wikipedia has other star lists which list stars at greater distances.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_20%E2%80%9325_light-years>

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_25%E2%80%9330_light-years>

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_30%E2%80%9335_light-years>

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_35%E2%80%9340_light-years>
And maybe you will need to look at some of the stars 40 to 45 lightyears from Earth.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_40%E2%80%9345_light-years>

The Gleise Catalog of Nearby Stars should list most of the 1,024 nearest stars now known.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_Catalogue_of_Nearby_Stars>

Here is a link to Wikipedia's list of brightest stars.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_brightest_stars>

The list includes the stars which appear brightest as seen from Earth. It uses the proper names and the Bayer designations of those stars. I have sorted it by increasing distance in light years from Earth, and ten famous stars are listed.

Many of the stars in the various Wikipedia lists have their own articles in Wikipedia and elsewhere, and many of those articles should list several alternate designations of each star.


---

