Gliese 588 is a nearby red dwarf star of spectral type M2.5, located in the constellation Lupus at 19.34 light-years from Earth.
History of observations
According Luyten (1979) (catalogue LHS, as well as NLTT), this object was discovered by Innes. In 1903–1927 Innes was the director of the Union Observatory (UO), South Africa.
However, in the Ci 20 catalogue (see number 934) this star was designated as "CD -40 7021", not "UO". This may indicate that GJ 588 was first catalogued earlier, in the Cordoba Durchmusterung by John M. Thome in 1894. Note: the real CD designation of Gliese 588 is "CD-40 9712", not "CD -40 7021": GJ 588 has a RA of 15 hours, but the real CD -40 7021 has a RA of 11 hours.
References
Gliese 588 Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA