The ''Millennium Star Atlas'' was constructed as a collaboration between a team at '' Sky & Telescope'' led by Roger Sinnott, and the European Space Agency's

Hipparcos ''Hipparcos'' was a scientific satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 1989 and operated until 1993. It was the first space experiment devoted to precision astrometry, the accurate measurement of the positions of celestial obj ...

project, led by

Michael Perryman Michael Perryman is a British astronomer, known for his work leading the Hipparcos and Gaia space astrometric projects. Education Michael Perryman studied theoretical physics at Cambridge University and received his doctorate from the Cavend ...

. This 1997 work was the first sky atlas to include the ''Hipparcos'' and ''Tycho Catalogue'' data, extending earlier undertakings in terms of completeness and uniformity to a magnitude limit of around 10–11 magnitude. It appeared as a stand-alone publication, and as three volumes of the 17-volume '' Hipparcos Catalogue''. The 1548 charts include one million

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

s from the Hipparcos and Tycho-1 Catalogues, three times as many as in any previous all-sky atlas; more than 8000

galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

with their orientation; outlines of many

bright Bright may refer to: Common meanings *Bright, an adjective meaning giving off or reflecting illumination; see Brightness *Bright, an adjective meaning someone with intelligence People * Bright (surname) * Bright (given name) *Bright, the stage na ...

and

dark nebula A dark nebula or absorption nebula is a type of interstellar cloud, particularly molecular clouds, that is so dense that it obscures the visible wavelengths of light from objects behind it, such as background stars and emission or reflection nebu ...

e; the location of many

open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (YF ...

and globular clusters; and some 250 of the brightest

quasar A quasar is an extremely Luminosity, luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is pronounced , and sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. This emission from a galaxy nucleus is powered by a supermassive black hole with a m ...

s. The non-stellar objects in the atlas are identified by type and designation. The chart scale is 100 arcsec/mm, matching that at the focus of an 8-inch f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain. Star magnitudes are essentially Johnson V. Distance labels are given for stars within 200 light-years of the Sun. Proper motion arrows are given for stars with motions exceeding 0.2 arcsec/yr. Variable stars are indicated by amplitude and variability type. Many thousands of already known and newly discovered double stars are depicted with tick marks indicating separation and position angle. Other major celestial atlases since 1997 have also incorporated the ''Hipparcos'' and ''Tycho Catalogue'' data. These include ''Sky Atlas 2000.0'' (2nd edition to 8.5 mag), the ''Cambridge Star Atlas'' (3rd edition to 6.5 mag), ''Uranometria 2000.0'' (2nd edition to 9.7 mag), the ''Bright Star Atlas 2000.0'' (to 6.5 mag), and the ''Pocket Sky Atlas'' (to 7.6 mag).

References

{{Reflist Astrometry Celestial cartography Modern star atlases