Editing Bayer designation (section)

==Scheme==
Bayer assigned a lowercase [[Greek alphabet|Greek letter]] (alpha (α), beta (β), gamma (γ), etc.) or a Latin letter (A, b, c, etc.) to each star he catalogued, combined with the Latin name of the star's parent constellation in [[genitive case|genitive]] (possessive) form. The constellation name is frequently abbreviated to a standard three-letter form.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Rabinowitz, Harold |author2=Vogel, Suzanne |title=The Manual of Scientific Style: A Guide for Authors, Editors, and Researchers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YZCqJzffR20C&pg=PA363 |date=12 June 2009 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-055796-0 |pages=363ff}}</ref>{{efn|See the article ''[[88 modern constellations]]'' for a list of the genitive forms and the constellations' standard abbreviations.}} For example, [[Aldebaran]] in the constellation [[Taurus (constellation)|Taurus]] (the Bull) is designated ''α&nbsp;Tauri'' (abbreviated ''α&nbsp;Tau'', pronounced ''Alpha Tauri''), which means "Alpha of the Bull".{{efn|The letters of the Greek alphabet were [[Greek numerals|used in antiquity as numerals]], however in a different way.}}<ref>{{cite book |first=Johann |last=Bayer |title=Uranometria |publisher=Archival Facsimiles |year=1987 |isbn=1852970219}}</ref>

Bayer used Greek letters for the brighter stars, but the Greek alphabet has only twenty-four letters, while a single constellation may contain fifty or more stars visible to the naked eye. When the Greek letters ran out, Bayer continued with Latin letters: uppercase ''A'', followed by lowercase ''b'' through ''z'' (omitting ''j'' and ''v'', but ''o'' was included), for a total of another 24&nbsp;letters.<ref name="Ridpath">{{cite book |first=Ian |last=Ridpath |title=Star Tales |chapter=Bayer's ''Uranometria'' and Bayer letters |publisher=Lutterworth Press |year=1989 |isbn=0718826957 |url=http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/bayer.html}}</ref>

Bayer did not label "permanent" stars with uppercase letters (except for ''A'', which he used instead of ''a'' to avoid confusion with ''α''). However, a number of stars in southern constellations have uppercase letter designations, like [[HD 102964|B Centauri]] and [[G Scorpii]]. These letters were assigned by later astronomers, notably Lacaille in his ''Coelum Australe Stelliferum'' and Gould in his ''Uranometria Argentina''. Lacaille followed Bayer's use of Greek letters, but this was insufficient for many constellations. He used first the lowercase letters, starting with ''a'', and if needed the uppercase letters, starting with ''A'', thus deviating somewhat from Bayer's practice. Lacaille used the Latin alphabet three times over in the large constellation [[Argo Navis]], once for each of the three areas that are now the constellations of [[Carina (constellation)|Carina]], [[Puppis]] and [[Vela (constellation)|Vela]]. That was still insufficient for the number of stars, so he also used uppercase Latin letters such as [[HD 82668|N&nbsp;Velorum]] and [[Q Puppis]]. Lacaille assigned uppercase letters between R and Z in several constellations, but these have either been dropped to allow the assignment of those letters to variable stars or have actually turned out to be variable.<ref>{{cite book |title=Coelum australe stelliferum&nbsp;... |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LIo_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PP7 |year=1763 |publisher=H.L. Guerin & L.F. Delatour |pages=7ff |via=Google Books}}</ref>