Proposed nomenclature for extragalactic planetary nebulae

Abstract

The ability to identify and distinguish between the wide variety of celestial objects benefits from application of a systematic and logical nomenclature. This often includes value-added information within the naming convention which can aid in placing the object positionally either via an RA/DEC or l,b concatenation. All new nomenclatures should be created following IAU guidelines. However as the number density of specific object types on the sky increases, as in the case of PN in external galaxies, a useful positional identifier becomes problematic. This brief but timely paper attempts to progress the debate on this vexing issue for the case of extragalactic planetary nebulae (PNe). There is a clear need to rationalise the current ad-hoc system now that many thousands of Extragalactic PN are being discovered. © 2006 Springer.