Blome Cosmography and Astrology 1686 Cornell CUL PJM 1013 02

Celestial cartography, uranography, astrography or star cartography is the aspect of

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

and branch of

cartography Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...

concerned with mapping

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 ...

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. ...

, and other

astronomical object An astronomical object, celestial object, stellar object or heavenly body is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists in the observable universe. In astronomy, the terms ''object'' and ''body'' are often us ...

s on the

celestial sphere In astronomy and navigation, the celestial sphere is an abstract sphere that has an arbitrarily large radius and is concentric to Earth. All objects in the sky can be conceived as being projected upon the inner surface of the celestial sphere, ...

. Measuring the position and light of charted objects requires a variety of instruments and techniques. These techniques have developed from angle measurements with quadrants and the unaided eye, through

sextant A sextant is a doubly reflecting navigation instrument that measures the angular distance between two visible objects. The primary use of a sextant is to measure the angle between an astronomical object and the horizon for the purposes of celes ...

s combined with lenses for light magnification, up to current methods which include computer-automated space telescopes. Uranographers have historically produced planetary position tables, star tables, and

star maps Star map is another name for a star chart, a map of the night sky. Star map(s) or starmap(s) may also refer to: * ''Star Maps'' (film), a 1997 American drama * ''Star Maps'' (album), a 1996 album by Possum Dixon * "Star Maps", a song by Spoons f ...

for use by both

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

and professional astronomers. More recently, computerized star maps have been compiled, and automated positioning of

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...

s uses databases of stars and of other astronomical objects.

Etymology

The word "uranography" derived from the Greek "ουρανογραφια" (

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

''ουρανος'' "sky, heaven" + ''γραφειν'' "to write") through the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''"uranographia"''. In Renaissance times, ''Uranographia'' was used as the book title of various celestial atlases. During the 19th century, "uranography" was defined as the "description of the heavens". Elijah H. Burritt re-defined it as the "geography of the heavens". The German word for uranography is "''Uranographie''", the French is "''uranographie''" and the Italian is "''uranografia''".

Astrometry

Star catalogues

A determining fact source for drawing star charts is naturally a star table. This is apparent when comparing the imaginative "star maps" of ''Poeticon Astronomicon'' – illustrations beside a narrative text from the antiquity – to the star maps of

Johann Bayer Johann Bayer (1572 – 7 March 1625) was a German lawyer and uranographer (celestial cartographer). He was born in Rain, Lower Bavaria, in 1572. At twenty, in 1592 he began his study of philosophy and law at the University of Ingolstadt, a ...

, based on precise star-position measurements from the '' Rudolphine Tables'' by Tycho Brahe.

Important historical star tables

* c:AD 150, ''

Almagest The ''Almagest'' is a 2nd-century Greek-language mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths, written by Claudius Ptolemy ( ). One of the most influential scientific texts in history, it canoni ...

'' – contains the last known star table from antiquity, prepared by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

, 1,028 stars. * c.964, '' Book of the Fixed Stars'', Arabic version of the ''Almagest'' by

al-Sufi ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Sufi ( fa, عبدالرحمن صوفی; December 7, 903 – May 25, 986) was an iranianRobert Harry van Gent. Biography of al-Sūfī'. "The Persian astronomer Abū al-Husayn ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn ‘Umar al-Sūfī was born in ...

. * 1627, '' Rudolphine Tables'' – contains the first West Enlightenment star table, based on measurements of Tycho Brahe, 1,005 stars. * 1690, ''

Prodromus Astronomiae ''Prodromus Astronomiae'' is a star catalog created by Johannes Hevelius and published posthumously by his wife and research aid Elisabeth Hevelius in 1690. The catalog consists of the location of 1,564 stars listed by constellation. It consists o ...

'' – by Johannes Hevelius for his ''Firmamentum Sobiescanum'', 1,564 stars. * 1729, ''Britannic Catalogue'' – by John Flamsteed for his

Atlas Coelestis The ''Atlas Coelestis'' is a star atlas published posthumously in 1729, based on observations made by the First Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed. The ''Atlas'' – the largest that ever had been published and the first comprehensive telescopic ...

, position of more than 3,000 stars by accuracy of 10". * 1903, ''

Bonner Durchmusterung In astronomy, Durchmusterung or Bonner Durchmusterung (BD) is an astrometric star catalogue of the whole sky, compiled by the Bonn Observatory in Germany from 1859 to 1903. The name comes from ('run-through examination'), a German word used for ...

'' – by Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander and collaborators, circa 460,000 stars.

Star atlases

Naked-eye

* 15th century BC – The ceiling of the tomb

TT71 Theban Tomb TT71 is located in the Theban Necropolis, on the west bank of the Nile, opposite to Luxor. It was the tomb chapel of Senenmut, who was the steward and architect of Hatshepsut. The chapel is located in the necropolis area around Shei ...

for the Egyptian architect and minister Senenmut, who served Queen Hatshepsut, is adorned with a large and extensive star chart. * c:a 1 CE ?? '' Poeticon astronomicon'', allegedly by

Gaius Julius Hyginus Gaius Julius Hyginus (; 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the scholar Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was elected superintendent of the Palatine library by Augustus according to Suetonius' ''De Grammatic ...

* 1092 – ''Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao'' (新儀象法要), by

Su Song Su Song (, 1020–1101), courtesy name Zirong (), was a Chinese polymathic scientist and statesman. Excelling in a variety of fields, he was accomplished in mathematics, Chinese astronomy, astronomy, History of cartography#China, cartography, ...

, a

horological Horology (; related to Latin '; ; , interfix ''-o-'', and suffix ''-logy''), . is the study of the measurement of time. Clocks, watches, clockwork, sundials, hourglasses, clepsydras, timers, time recorders, marine chronometers, and atomic clo ...

treatise which had the earliest existent

star map A star chart is a celestial map of the night sky with astronomical objects laid out on a grid system. They are used to identify and locate constellations, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and planets. They have been used for human navigation since ...

s in printed form. Su Song's star maps also featured the corrected position of the pole star which had been deciphered due to the efforts of astronomical observations by Su's peer, the

polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

scientist

Shen Kuo Shen Kuo (; 1031–1095) or Shen Gua, courtesy name Cunzhong (存中) and pseudonym Mengqi (now usually given as Mengxi) Weng (夢溪翁),Yao (2003), 544. was a Chinese polymathic scientist and statesman of the Song dynasty (960–1279). Shen wa ...

. * 1515 – First European printed star charts published in Nuremberg, Germany, engraved by

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...

. * 1603 – '' Uranometria'', by

, the first western modern star map based on Tycho Brahe's and

Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws ...

's '' Tabulae Rudolphinae'' * 1627,

Julius Schiller Julius Schiller (c. 1580 – 1627) was a lawyer from Augsburg, who like his fellow citizen and colleague Johann Bayer published a star atlas in celestial cartography. In the year of his death, Schiller, with Bayer's assistance, published th ...

published the star atlas ''

Coelum Stellatum Christianum The coelom (or celom) is the main body cavity in most animals and is positioned inside the body to surround and contain the digestive tract and other organs. In some animals, it is lined with mesothelium. In other animals, such as molluscs, it re ...

'' which replaced pagan constellations with biblical and early Christian figures. * 1660 – Jan Janssonius' 11th volume of ''

Atlas Maior The ''Atlas Maior'' is the final version of Joan Blaeu's atlas, published in Amsterdam between 1662 and 1672, in Latin (11 volumes), French (12 volumes), Dutch (9 volumes), German (10 volumes) and Spanish (10 volumes), containing 594 maps and a ...

'' featured the '' Harmonia Macrocosmica'' by

Andreas Cellarius Andreas Cellarius (–1665) was a Dutch–German cartographer and cosmographer best known for his 1660 ''Harmonia Macrocosmica'', a major star atlas. Life He was born in Neuhausen, and was educated in Heidelberg. The Protestant Cellarius m ...

* 1693 – ''Firmamentum Sobiescanum sive Uranometria'', by Johannes Hevelius, a star map updated with many new star positions based on Hevelius's ''Prodromus astronomiae'' (1690) – 1564 stars.

Telescopic

* 1729 ''

'' by John Flamsteed * 1801 ''Uranographia'' by

Johann Elert Bode Johann Elert Bode (; 19 January 1747 – 23 November 1826) was a German astronomer known for his reformulation and popularisation of the Titius–Bode law. Bode determined the orbit of Uranus and suggested the planet's name. Life and career Bo ...

* 1843 ''Uranometria Nova'' by Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander

Photographic

* 1914 ''Franklin-Adams Charts'', by

John Franklin-Adams John Franklin-Adams (1843 – 1912) was a British astronomer and stellar cartographer. The minor planets 982 Franklina and 1925 Franklin-Adams 1925 Franklin-Adams ( ''prov. designation'': ) is a stony background asteroid from the central region ...

, a very early photographic atlas. * ''The Falkau Atlas'' (Hans Vehrenberg). Stars to magnitude 13. * ''Atlas Stellarum'' (Hans Vehrenberg). Stars to magnitude 14. * ''True Visual Magnitude Photographic Star Atlas'' (Christos Papadopoulos). Stars to magnitude 13.5. * ''The Cambridge Photographic Star Atlas'', Axel Mellinger and Ronald Stoyan, 2011. Stars to magnitude 14, natural color, 1°/cm.

Modern

* ''Bright Star Atlas'' – Wil Tirion (stars to magnitude 6.5) * ''Cambridge Star Atlas'' – Wil Tirion (Stars to magnitude 6.5) * ''Norton's Star Atlas and Reference Handbook'' – Ed. Ian Ridpath (stars to magnitude 6.5) * ''Stars & Planets Guide'' – Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion (stars to magnitude 6.0) * ''Cambridge Double Star Atlas'' – James Mullaney and Wil Tirion (stars to magnitude 7.5) * ''Cambridge Atlas of Herschel Objects'' – James Mullaney and Wil Tirion (stars to magnitude 7.5) * ''Pocket Sky Atlas'' – Roger Sinnott (stars to magnitude 7.5) * ''Deep Sky Reiseatlas'' – Michael Feiler, Philip Noack (Telrad Finder Charts – stars to magnitude 7.5) * ''Atlas Coeli Skalnate Pleso'' (Atlas of the Heavens) 1950.0 – Antonín Bečvář (stars to magnitude 7.75 and about 12,000 clusters, galaxies and nebulae) * ''SkyAtlas 2000.0'', second edition – Wil Tirion & Roger Sinnott (stars to magnitude 8.5) * 1987, ''Uranometria 2000.0 Deep Sky Atlas'' – Wil Tirion, Barry Rappaport, Will Remaklus (stars to magnitude 9.7; 11.5 in selected close-ups) * ''Herald-Bobroff AstroAtlas'' – David Herald & Peter Bobroff (stars to magnitude 9 in main charts, 14 in selected sections) * ''

Millennium Star Atlas 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 project, led by Michael Perryman. This 1997 work was the first sky atlas to i ...

'' – Roger Sinnott, Michael Perryman (stars to magnitude 11) * ''Field Guide to the Stars and Planets'' –

Jay M. Pasachoff Jay Myron Pasachoff (July 1, 1943 – November 20, 2022) was an American astronomer. Pasachoff was Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College and the author of textbooks and tradebooks in astronomy, physics, mathematics, and other ...

, Wil Tirion charts (stars to magnitude 7.5) * ''SkyGX'' (still in preparation) – Christopher Watson (stars to magnitude 12) * ''The Great Atlas of the Sky'' – Piotr Brych (2,400,000 stars to magnitude 12, galaxies to magnitude 18).

Computerized

100,000 Stars
*

Cartes du Ciel ''Cartes du Ciel'' ("CDC" and "SkyChart") is a free and open source planetarium program for Linux, macOS, and Windows. With the change to version 3, Linux has been added as a target platform, licensing has changed from freeware to GPLv2 and the ...

Celestia Celestia is a real-time 3D astronomy software program that was created in 2001 by Chris Laurel. The program allows users to virtually travel through our universe and explore real objects that have been catalogued. Celestia also doubles as a pl ...

3D Galaxy Map

CyberSky

*

Google Sky Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and GIS data onto a 3D globe, allowing users ...

* KStars *

Stellarium A stellarium is a three-dimensional map of the stars, typically centered on Earth. They are common fixtures at planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entert ...

SKY-MAP.ORG Sky-Map.org (or WikiSky.org) is a wiki and interactive sky map that covers more than half a billion celestial objects. Users can view the whole star sky at once and zoom in to view areas in greater detail. WikiSky includes many stars, galaxies, ...

SkyMap Online
*

WorldWide Telescope WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is an open-source set of applications, data and cloud services, originally created by Microsoft Research but now an open source project hosted on GitHub. The .NET Foundation holds the copyright and the project is manage ...

XEphem XEphem is a Motif based ephemeris and planetarium program for Unix-like operating systems developed by Elwood C. Downey. History XEphem started as a Unix and Motif conversion of the IBM PC-based '. It was initially released in December 1993 ...

, for Unix-like systems * Stellarmap.com – online map of the stars *

Star Walk ''Star Walk'' is an educational astronomy application developed by Vito Technology which allows users to explore celestial objects in real time through the screen of their devices. The application has been presented within the mobile software mar ...

and

Kepler Explorer OpenLab Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws of ...

: 2 celestial cartography apps for smartphones *

SpaceEngine SpaceEngine (stylized as SPΛCE ΞNGINE) is an interactive 3D planetarium and astronomy software developed by Russian astronomer and programmer Vladimir Romanyuk. It creates a 1:1 scale three-dimensional planetarium representing the entire observ ...

Free and printable from files

The TriAtlas Project

Toshimi Taki Star Atlases

Andrew Johnson mag 7

References

External links

Star Maps
from Ian Ridpath's ''Star Tales'' website.
The Mag-7 Star Atlas Project

an extensive collection of 51 star maps and other astronomy related books stored as a multitude of images.
Monthly star maps for every location on Earth

Easy to use monthly star maps for northern and southern hemispheres. Helpful target lists for naked eye, binocular, or telescope viewing.

Collection of rare star atlases, charts, and maps
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180325232350/http://contentdm.lindahall.org/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Fstar_atlas , date=2018-03-25 available in full digital facsimile at Linda Hall Library.
Navigable online map of the stars
Stellarmap.com. * The Digital Collections of the Linda Hall Library include: *
"Astronomy: Star Atlases, Charts, and Maps"
a collection of more than 60 star atlas volumes. *
"Astronomy: Selected Images
a collection of high-resolution star map images. *
"History of Cosmology: Views of the Stars"
high-resolution scans of prints relating to the study of the structure of the cosmos. * * Works about astronomy el:Άτλας Ουρανού