Star Catalogues
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A star catalogue is an
astronomical catalog An astronomical catalog or catalogue is a List (information), list or tabulation of astronomical objects, typically grouped together because they share a common type, Galaxy morphological classification, morphology, origin, means of detection, or ...
ue that lists
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. In
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 ...
, many stars are referred to simply by catalogue numbers. There are a great many different star catalogues which have been produced for different purposes over the years, and this article covers only some of the more frequently quoted ones. Star catalogues were compiled by many different ancient people, including the
Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...
ns,
Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
,
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
,
Persians The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...
, and
Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
s. They were sometimes accompanied by a
star chart 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 ...
for illustration. Most modern catalogues are available in electronic format and can be freely downloaded from space agencies' data centres. The largest is being compiled from the spacecraft
Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenog ...
and thus far has over a billion stars. Completeness and accuracy are described by the faintest
limiting magnitude In astronomy, limiting magnitude is the faintest apparent magnitude of a celestial body that is detectable or detected by a given instrument. In some cases, limiting magnitude refers to the upper threshold of detection. In more formal uses, limi ...
V (largest number) and the accuracy of the positions.


Historical catalogues


Ancient Near East

From their existing records, it is known that the ancient Egyptians recorded the names of only a few identifiable
constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...
s and a list of thirty-six
decans The decans (; Egyptian ''bꜣktw'' or ''baktiu'', " hoseconnected with work") are 36 groups of stars (small constellations) used in the ancient Egyptian astronomy to conveniently divide the 360 degree ecliptic into 36 parts of 10 degrees each, bo ...
that were used as a
star clock A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make ...
. The Egyptians called the
circumpolar star A circumpolar star is a star that, as viewed from a given latitude on Earth, never sets below the horizon due to its apparent proximity to one of the celestial poles. Circumpolar stars are therefore visible from said location toward the nearest ...
"the star that cannot perish" and, although they made no known formal star catalogues, they nonetheless created extensive
star chart 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 of the night sky which adorn the coffins and ceilings of tomb chambers. Although the ancient
Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...
ians were the first to record the names of constellations on
clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylu ...
s, the earliest known star catalogues were compiled by the ancient Babylonians of
Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
in the late 2nd millennium BC, during the
Kassite Period The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology). They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylon ...
(c. 1531 BC to c. 1155 BC). They are better known by their Assyrian-era name 'Three Stars Each'. These star catalogues, written on
clay tablets In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylus ...
, listed thirty-six stars: twelve for " Anu" along the
celestial equator The celestial equator is the great circle of the imaginary celestial sphere on the same plane as the equator of Earth. This plane of reference bases the equatorial coordinate system. In other words, the celestial equator is an abstract projectio ...
, twelve for " Ea" south of that, and twelve for "
Enlil Enlil, , "Lord f theWind" later known as Elil, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Bab ...
" to the north. The
Mul.Apin MUL.APIN () is the conventional title given to a Babylonian compendium that deals with many diverse aspects of Babylonian astronomy and astrology. It is in the tradition of earlier star catalogues, the so-called ''Three Stars Each'' lists, but ...
lists, dated to sometime before the
Neo-Babylonian Empire The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the List of kings of Babylon, King of B ...
(626–539 BC), are direct textual descendants of the "Three Stars Each" lists and their constellation patterns show similarities to those of later
Greek civilization The culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, beginning in Minoan civilization, Minoan and later in Mycenaean Greece, continuing most notably into Classical Greece, while influencing the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine ...
.


Hellenistic world and Roman Empire

In
Ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
, the astronomer and mathematician Eudoxus laid down a full set of the classical
constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...
s around 370 BC. His catalogue '' Phaenomena'', rewritten by
Aratus of Soli Aratus (; grc-gre, Ἄρατος ὁ Σολεύς; c. 315 BC/310 BC240) was a Greek didactic poet. His major extant work is his hexameter poem ''Phenomena'' ( grc-gre, Φαινόμενα, ''Phainómena'', "Appearances"; la, Phaenomena), the fi ...
between 275 and 250 BC as a didactic poem, became one of the most consulted astronomical texts in antiquity and beyond. It contained descriptions of the positions of the stars and the shapes of the constellations, and provided information on their relative times of rising and setting. Approximately in the 3rd century BC, the Greek astronomers
Timocharis of Alexandria Timocharis of Alexandria ( grc-gre, Τιμόχαρις or Τιμοχάρης, ''gen.'' Τιμοχάρους; c. 320–260 BC) was a Greek astronomer and philosopher. Likely born in Alexandria, he was a contemporary of Euclid. Work What little is k ...
and
Aristillus Aristyllus ( el, Ἀρίστυλλος; fl. c. 261 BC) was a Greek astronomer, presumably of the school of Timocharis (c. 300 BC). He was among the earliest meridian-astronomy observers. Six of his stellar declinations are preserved at ...
created another star catalogue.
Hipparchus Hipparchus (; el, Ἵππαρχος, ''Hipparkhos'';  BC) was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equi ...
(c. 190 – c. 120 BC) completed his star catalogue in 129 BC, the earliest known attempt to map the entire sky, which he compared to
Timocharis Timocharis of Alexandria ( grc-gre, Τιμόχαρις or Τιμοχάρης, ''gen.'' Τιμοχάρους; c. 320–260 BC) was a Greek astronomer and philosopher. Likely born in Alexandria, he was a contemporary of Euclid. Work What little is kn ...
' and discovered that the
longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...
of the stars had changed over time. This led him to determine the first value of the
precession of the equinoxes In astronomy, axial precession is a gravity-induced, slow, and continuous change in the orientation of an astronomical body's rotational axis. In the absence of precession, the astronomical body's orbit would show axial parallelism. In particu ...
. In the 2nd century,
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 ...
(c. 90 – c. 186 AD) of
Roman Egypt , conventional_long_name = Roman Egypt , common_name = Egypt , subdivision = Province , nation = the Roman Empire , era = Late antiquity , capital = Alexandria , title_leader = Praefectus Augustalis , image_map = Roman E ...
published a star catalogue as part of his ''
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 ...
'', which listed 1,022 stars visible from
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
. Ptolemy's catalogue was based almost entirely on an earlier one by Hipparchus. It remained the standard star catalogue in the Western and
Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
worlds for over eight centuries. The Islamic astronomer
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 ...
updated it in 964, and the star positions were redetermined by
Ulugh Beg Mīrzā Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh ( chg, میرزا محمد طارق بن شاہ رخ, fa, میرزا محمد تراغای بن شاہ رخ), better known as Ulugh Beg () (22 March 1394 – 27 October 1449), was a Timurid sultan, as ...
in 1437, but it was not fully superseded until the appearance of the thousand-star catalogue of
Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe ( ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe; generally called Tycho (14 December 154624 October 1601) was a Danish astronomer, known for his comprehensive astronomical observations, generally considered to be the most accurate of his time. He was k ...
in 1598. The ancient
Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...
and other scriptures of
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
were very well aware of the astronomical positions and constellations. Both Mahabharata and Ramayana provide references to various events in terms of the planetary positions and constellations of that time. The Planetary positions at the time of Mahabharata war has been given comprehensively. A very interesting and exhaustive discussion about the planetary positions along with specific name of constellations appears in a paper by R N Iyengar in the scientific journal of 'Indian journal of History of Science'


Ancient China

The earliest known inscriptions for
Chinese star names Chinese star names (Chinese: , ''xīng míng'') are named according to ancient Chinese astronomy and astrology. The sky is divided into star mansions (, ''xīng xiù'', also translated as "lodges") and asterisms (, ''xīng guān''). The system of ...
were written on
oracle bone Oracle bones () are pieces of ox scapula and turtle plastron, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. ''Scapulimancy'' is the correct term if ox scapulae were used for th ...
s and date to the
Shang Dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...
(c. 1600 – c. 1050 BC). Sources dating from the
Zhou Dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...
(c. 1050 – 256 BC) which provide star names include the '' Zuo Zhuan'', the ''
Shi Jing The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...
'', and the "
Canon of Yao Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...
" (堯典) in the ''
Book of Documents The ''Book of Documents'' (''Shūjīng'', earlier ''Shu King'') or ''Classic of History'', also known as the ''Shangshu'' (“Venerated Documents”), is one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. It is a collection of rhetorica ...
''. The ''
Lüshi Chunqiu The ''Lüshi Chunqiu'', also known in English as ''Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals'', is an encyclopedic Chinese classic text compiled around 239 BC under the patronage of the Qin Dynasty Chancellor Lü Buwei. In the evaluation of Michae ...
'' written by the
Qin Qin may refer to: Dynasties and states * Qin (state) (秦), a major state during the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China * Qin dynasty (秦), founded by the Qin state in 221 BC and ended in 206 BC * Daqin (大秦), ancient Chinese name for the Roman Emp ...
statesman
Lü Buwei Lü Buwei (291–235 BCE) was a Chinese merchant and politician of the Qin state during the Warring States period. Originally an influential merchant from the Wei () state, Lü Buwei met and befriended King Zhuangxiang of Qin, who was then a m ...
(d. 235 BC) provides most of the names for the twenty-eight mansions (i.e. asterisms across the
ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic again ...
belt of 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, ...
used for constructing the
calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...
). An earlier
lacquerware Lacquerware are objects decoratively covered with lacquer. Lacquerware includes small or large containers, tableware, a variety of small objects carried by people, and larger objects such as furniture and even coffins painted with lacquer. Befor ...
chest found in the
Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng The Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng () is an archaeological site in Leigudun Community (), Nanjiao Subdistrict (), Zengdu District, Suizhou (during the Spring and Autumn period called Sui County), Hubei, China, dated sometime after 433 BC. The tomb co ...
(interred in 433 BC) contains a complete list of the names of the twenty-eight mansions. Star catalogues are traditionally attributed to
Shi Shen Shi Shen (, fl. 4th century BC) was a Chinese astronomer and astrologer. He was a contemporary of Gan De born in the State of Wei, also known as the Shi Shenfu. Observations Shi is credited with positioning the 121 stars found in the preserved te ...
and
Gan De Gan De (; fl. 4th century BC), also known as the Lord Gan (Gan Gong), was an ancient Chinese astronomer and astrologer born in the State of Qi. Along with Shi Shen, he is believed to be the first in history known by name to compile a star catalo ...
, two rather obscure Chinese astronomers who may have been active in the 4th century BC of the
Warring States period The Warring States period () was an era in History of China#Ancient China, ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded ...
(403–221 BC). The ''Shi Shen astronomy'' (石申天文, Shi Shen tienwen) is attributed to Shi Shen, and the ''Astronomic star observation'' (天文星占, Tianwen xingzhan) to Gan De. It was not until the
Han Dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
(202 BC – 220 AD) that astronomers started to observe and record names for all the stars that were apparent (to the
naked eye Naked eye, also called bare eye or unaided eye, is the practice of engaging in visual perception unaided by a magnifying, light-collecting optical instrument, such as a telescope or microscope, or eye protection. Vision corrected to normal ...
) in the night sky, not just those around the ecliptic. A star catalogue is featured in one of the chapters of the late 2nd-century-BC history work ''
Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese hist ...
'' by
Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...
(145–86 BC) and contains the "schools" of Shi Shen and Gan De's work (i.e. the different constellations they allegedly focused on for astrological purposes). Sima's catalogue—the ''Book of Celestial Offices'' (天官書 Tianguan shu)—includes some 90 constellations, the stars therein named after
temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
, ideas in
philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
, locations such as markets and shops, and different people such as farmers and soldiers. For his ''Spiritual Constitution of the Universe'' (靈憲, Ling Xian) of 120 AD, the astronomer
Zhang Heng Zhang Heng (; AD 78–139), formerly romanized as Chang Heng, was a Chinese polymathic scientist and statesman who lived during the Han dynasty. Educated in the capital cities of Luoyang and Chang'an, he achieved success as an astronomer, ma ...
(78–139 AD) compiled a star catalogue comprising 124 constellations.
Chinese constellation Traditional Chinese astronomy has a system of dividing the celestial sphere into asterisms or constellations, known as "officials" (Chinese ''xīng guān''). The Chinese asterisms are generally smaller than the constellations of Hellenistic t ...
names were later adopted by the
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
ns and
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese.


Islamic world

A large number of star catalogues were published by
Muslim astronomers Islamic astronomy comprises the Astronomy, astronomical developments made in the Islamic world, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age (9th–13th centuries), and mostly written in the Arabic language. These developments mostly took place in ...
in the
medieval Islamic world The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic, and scientific flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 14th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign ...
. These were mainly ''
Zij A zij ( fa, زيج, zīj) is an Islamic astronomical book that tabulates parameters used for astronomical calculations of the positions of the Sun, Moon, stars, and planets. Etymology The name ''zij'' is derived from the Middle Persian term ' ...
'' treatises, including Arzachel's ''
Tables of Toledo The ''Toledan Tables'', or ''Tables of Toledo'', were astronomical tables which were used to predict the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets relative to the fixed stars. They were a collection of mathematic tables that describe different aspec ...
'' (1087), the
Maragheh observatory The Maragheh observatory (Persian: رصدخانه مراغه), also spelled Maragha, Maragah, Marageh, and Maraga, was an astronomical observatory established in the mid 13th century under the patronage of the Ilkhanid Hulagu and the directorship ...
's '' Zij-i Ilkhani'' (1272) and
Ulugh Beg Mīrzā Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh ( chg, میرزا محمد طارق بن شاہ رخ, fa, میرزا محمد تراغای بن شاہ رخ), better known as Ulugh Beg () (22 March 1394 – 27 October 1449), was a Timurid sultan, as ...
's ''
Zij-i-Sultani ''Zīj-i Sulṭānī'' ( fa, زیجِ سلطانی) is a Zij astronomical table and star catalogue that was published by Ulugh Beg in 1438–1439. It was the joint product of the work of a group of Muslim astronomers working under the patronage o ...
'' (1437). Other famous
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
star catalogues include
Alfraganus Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī ( ar, أبو العبّاس أحمد بن محمد بن كثير الفرغاني 798/800/805–870), also known as Alfraganus in the West, was an astronomer in the Abbasid court ...
' ''A compendium of the science of stars'' (850) which corrected Ptolemy's ''Almagest''; and
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 ...
's ''
Book of Fixed Stars The ''Book of Fixed Stars'' ( ar, كتاب صور الكواكب ', literally ''The Book of the Shapes of Stars'') is an astronomical text written by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi) around 964. Following the translation movement in the 9th cent ...
'' (964) which described observations of the
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, their positions, magnitudes, brightness and
colour Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
, drawings for each
constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...
, and the first known description of the
Andromeda Galaxy The Andromeda Galaxy (IPA: ), also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula, is a barred spiral galaxy with the diameter of about approximately from Earth and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way. The gala ...
. Many stars are still known by their Arabic names (see
List of Arabic star names This is a list of Arabic star names. In Western astronomy, most of the accepted star names are Arabic, a few are Greek and some are of unknown origin. Typically only bright stars have names. History of Arabic star names Very old star names origi ...
).


Pre-Columbian Americas

The ''Motul Dictionary'', compiled in the 16th century by an anonymous author (although attributed to Fray Antonio de Ciudad Real), contains a list of stars originally observed by the ancient Mayas. The Maya
Paris Codex The ''Paris Codex'' (also known as the ''Codex Peresianus'' and ''Codex Pérez'') is one of four surviving generally accepted pre-Columbian Maya books dating to the Postclassic Period of Mesoamerican chronology (c. 900–1521 AD). The document i ...
also contain symbols for different constellations which were represented by mythological beings.


Bayer and Flamsteed catalogues

Two systems introduced in historical catalogues remain in use to the present day. The first system comes from the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
astronomer
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 ...
's ''Uranometria'', published in 1603 and regarding bright stars. These are given a Greek alphabet, Greek letter followed by the genitive case of the
constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...
in which they are located; examples are Alpha Centauri or Gamma Cygni. The major problem with Bayer's naming system was the number of letters in the Greek alphabet (24). It was easy to run out of letters before running out of stars needing names, particularly for large constellations such as Argo Navis. Bayer extended his lists up to 67 stars by using lower-case Roman letters ("a" through "z") then upper-case ones ("A" through "Q"). Few of those designations have survived. It is worth mentioning, however, as it served as the starting point for variable star designations, which start with "R" through "Z", then "RR", "RS", "RT"..."RZ", "SS", "ST"..."ZZ" and beyond. The second system comes from the English astronomer John Flamsteed's ''Historia coelestis Britannica'' (1725). It kept the genitive-of-the-constellation rule for the back end of his catalogue names, but used numbers instead of the Greek alphabet for the front half. Examples include 61 Cygni and 47 Ursae Majoris.


Full-sky catalogues (in chronological order)

Bayer and Flamsteed covered only a few thousand stars between them. In theory, full-sky catalogues try to list every star in the sky. There are, however, billions of stars resolvable by 21st century telescopes, so this is an impossible goal; with this kind of catalog, an attempt is generally made to get every star brighter than a given apparent magnitude, magnitude.


LAL

Jérôme Lalande published the ''Histoire céleste française'' in 1801, which contained an extensive star catalog, among other things. The observations made were made from the Paris Observatory and so it describes mostly northern stars. This catalogue contained the positions and magnitudes of 47,390 stars, out to magnitude 9, and was the most complete catalogue up to that time. A significant reworking of this catalogue by followers of Lalande in 1846 added reference numbers to the stars that are used to refer to some of these stars to this day. The decent accuracy of this catalogue kept it in common use as a reference by observatories around the world throughout the 19th century.


BD/CD/CPD

The ''Bonner Durchmusterung'' (''German'': Bonn sampling) and follow-ups were the most complete of the pre-photographic star catalogues. The ''Bonner Durchmusterung'' itself was published by Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander, Adalbert Krueger, Adalbert Krüger, and Eduard Schoenfeld, Eduard Schönfeld between 1852 and 1859. It covered 320,000 stars in epoch 1855.0. As it covered only the northern sky and some of the south (being compiled from the Bonn observatory), this was then supplemented by the ''Südliche Durchmusterung '' (SD), which covers stars between declinations −1 and −23 degrees (1886, 120,000 stars). It was further supplemented by the ''Cordoba Durchmusterung'' (580,000 stars), which began to be compiled at Córdoba, Argentina in 1892 under the initiative of John M. Thome and covers declinations −22 to −90. Lastly, the ''Cape Photographic Durchmusterung'' (450,000 stars, 1896), compiled at the Cape, South Africa, covers declinations −18 to −90. Astronomers preferentially use the HD designation (see next entry) of a star, as that catalogue also gives spectroscopy, spectroscopic information, but as the Durchmusterungs cover more stars they occasionally fall back on the older designations when dealing with one not found in Draper. Unfortunately, a lot of catalogues cross-reference the Durchmusterungs without specifying which one is used in the zones of overlap, so some confusion often remains. Star names from these catalogues include the initials of which of the four catalogues they are from (though the ''Southern'' follows the example of the ''Bonner'' and uses BD; CPD is often shortened to CP), followed by the angle of declination of the star (rounded towards zero, and thus ranging from +00 to +89 and −00 to −89), followed by an arbitrary number as there are always thousands of stars at each angle. Examples include BD+50°1725 or CD−45°13677.


HD/HDE

The Henry Draper Catalogue was published in the period 1918–1924. It covers the whole sky down to about ninth or tenth magnitude, and is notable as the first large-scale attempt to catalogue spectral types of stars. The catalogue was compiled by Annie Jump Cannon and her co-workers at Harvard College Observatory under the supervision of Edward Charles Pickering, and was named in honour of Henry Draper, whose widow donated the money required to finance it. HD numbers are widely used today for stars which have no Bayer or Flamsteed designation. Stars numbered 1–225300 are from the original catalogue and are numbered in order of right ascension for the 1900.0 epoch (astronomy), epoch. Stars in the range 225301–359083 are from the 1949 extension of the catalogue. The notation HDE can be used for stars in this extension, but they are usually denoted HD as the numbering ensures that there can be no ambiguity.


AC

The ''Catalogue astrographique'' (Astrographic Catalogue) was part of the international ''Carte du Ciel'' programme designed to photograph and measure the positions of all stars brighter than magnitude 11.0. In total, over 4.6 million stars were observed, many as faint as 13th magnitude. This project was started in the late 19th century. The observations were made between 1891 and 1950. To observe the entire celestial sphere without burdening too many institutions, the sky was divided among 20 observatories, by declination zones. Each observatory exposed and measured the plates of its zone, using a standardized telescope (a "normal astrograph") so each plate photographed had a similar scale of approximately 60 arcsecs/mm. The U.S. Naval Observatory took over custody of the catalogue, now in its 2000.2 edition.


BS, BSC, HR

First published in 1930 as the ''Yale University, Yale Catalog of Bright Stars'', this catalogue contained information on all stars brighter than apparent magnitude, visual magnitude 6.5 in the ''Harvard Revised Photometry Catalogue''. The list was revised in 1983 with the publication of a supplement that listed additional stars down to magnitude 7.1. The catalogue detailed each star's coordinates, proper motions, Photometry (astronomy), photometric data, spectral types, and other useful information. The last printed version of the Bright Star Catalogue was the 4th revised edition, released in 1982. The 5th edition is in electronic form and is available online.


SAO

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory catalogue was compiled in 1966 from various previous astrometry, astrometric catalogues, and contains only the stars to about ninth magnitude for which accurate proper motions were known. There is considerable overlap with the Henry Draper catalogue, but any star lacking motion data at that time is omitted. The epoch (astronomy), epoch for the position measurements in the latest edition is J2000.0. The SAO catalogue contains this major piece of information not in Draper, the proper motion of the stars, so it is often used when that fact is of importance. The cross-references with the Draper and Durchmusterung catalogue numbers in the latest edition are also useful. Names in the SAO catalogue start with the letters SAO, followed by a number. The numbers are assigned following 18 ten-degree bands in the sky, with stars sorted by right ascension within each band.


USNO-B1.0

USNO-B1.0 is an all-sky catalogue created by research and operations astrophysicists at the U.S. Naval Observatory (as developed at the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station), that presents positions, proper motions, magnitudes in various optical passbands, and star/galaxy estimators for 1,042,618,261 objects derived from 3,643,201,733 separate observations. The data was obtained from scans of 7,435 Schmidt camera, Schmidt plates taken for the various sky surveys during the last 50 years. USNO-B1.0 is believed to provide all-sky coverage, completeness down to V = 21, 0.2 arcsecond astrometric accuracy at J2000.0, 0.3 magnitude photometric accuracy in up to five colors, and 85% accuracy for distinguishing stars from non-stellar objects. USNO-B is now followed by NOMAD; both can be found on the Naval Observatory server. The United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station, Naval Observatory is currently working on B2 and C variants of the USNO catalogue series.


GSC

The ''Guide Star Catalog'' is an online catalogue of stars produced for the purpose of accurately positioning and identifying stars satisfactory for use as guide stars by the Hubble Space Telescope program. The first version of the catalogue was produced in the late 1980s by digitizing photographic plates and contained about 20 million stars, out to about magnitude 15. The latest version of this catalogue contains information for 945,592,683 stars, out to magnitude 21. The latest version continues to be used to accurately position the Hubble Space Telescope.


PPM

The PPM Star Catalogue (1991) is one of the best, both in the proper motion and star position till 1999. Not as precise as the Hipparcos catalogue but with many more stars. The PPM was built from BD, SAO, HD and more, with sophisticated algorithm and is an extension for the Fifth Fundamental Catalogue, "Catalogues of Fundamental Stars".


HIP

The Hipparcos catalogue was compiled from the data gathered by the European Space Agency's astrometric satellite ''Hipparcos'', which was operational from 1989 to 1993. The catalogue was published in June 1997 and contains 118,218 stars; an updated version with re-processed data was published in 2007. It is particularly notable for its Stellar parallax, parallax measurements, which are considerably more accurate than those produced by ground-based observations.


Gaia catalogues

The Gaia catalogue is released in stages that will contain increasing amounts of information; the early releases also miss some stars, especially fainter stars located in dense star fields. Data from every data release can be accessed at the Gaia Archive, ''Gaia'' archive. Gaia DR1, the first data release of the spacecraft Gaia (spacecraft), ''Gaia'' mission, based on 14 months of observations made through September 2015, took place on 13 September 2016. The data release includes positions and magnitudes in a single photometric band for 1.1 billion stars using only ''Gaia'' data, positions, parallaxes and proper motions for more than 2 million stars based on a combination of ''Gaia'' and Tycho-2 Catalogue, Tycho-2 data for those objects in both catalogues, light curves and characteristics for about 3000 variable stars, and positions and magnitudes for more than 2000 extragalactic sources used to define the celestial reference frame. The second data release (DR2), which occurred on 25 April 2018, is based on 22 months of observations made between 25 July 2014 and 23 May 2016. It includes positions, parallaxes and proper motions for about 1.3 billion stars and positions of an additional 300 million stars, red and blue photometric data for about 1.1 billion stars and single colour photometry for an additional 400 million stars, and median radial velocities for about 7 million stars between magnitude 4 and 13. It also contains data for over 14,000 selected Solar System objects. The first part of the third data release, EDR3 (Early Data Release 3) was released on 3 December 2020. It is based on 34 months of observations and consists of improved positions, parallaxes and proper motions of over 1.8 billion objects The full DR3, expected on 13 June 2022, will include the EDR3 data plus Solar System data; variability information; results for non-single stars, for quasars, and for extended objects; astrophysical parameters; and a special data set, the Gaia Andromeda Photometric Survey (GAPS). The final Gaia catalogue is expected to be released three years after the end of the Gaia mission.


Specialized catalogues

Specialized catalogues make no effort to list all the stars in the sky, working instead to highlight a particular type of star, such as variable star, variables or List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearby stars.


ADS

Robert Grant Aitken, Aitken's double star catalogue (1932) lists 17,180 double stars north of declination −30 degrees.


Carbon stars

Stephenson's General Catalogue of galactic Carbon stars is a catalogue of 7000+ carbon stars.


Gl, GJ, Wo

The Wilhelm Gliese, Gliese (later Gliese-Hartmut Jahreiß, Jahreiß) catalogue attempts to list all star systems within of Earth ordered by right ascension (see the List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs). Later editions expanded the coverage to . Numbers in the range 1.0–915.0 (Gl numbers) are from the second edition, which was :''Catalogue of Nearby Stars'' (1969, W. Gliese). The integers up to 915 represent systems which were in the first edition. Numbers with a decimal point were used to insert new star systems for the second edition without destroying the desired order (by right ascension). This catalogue is referred to as CNS2, although this name is never used in catalogue numbers. Numbers in the range 9001–9850 (Wo numbers) are from the supplement :''Extension of the Gliese catalogue'' (1970, Richard van der Riet Woolley, R. Woolley, E. A. Epps, M. J. Penston and S. B. Pocock). Numbers in the ranges 1000–1294 and 2001–2159 (GJ numbers) are from the supplement :''Nearby Star Data Published 1969–1978'' (1979, W. Gliese and H. Jahreiß). The range 1000–1294 represents nearby stars, while 2001–2159 represents suspected nearby stars. In the literature, the GJ numbers are sometimes retroactively extended to the Gl numbers (since there is no overlap). For example, Gliese 436 can be interchangeably referred to as either Gl 436 or GJ 436. Numbers in the range 3001–4388 are from :''Preliminary Version of the Third Catalogue of Nearby Stars'' (1991, W. Gliese and H. Jahreiß). Although this version of the catalogue was termed "preliminary", it is still the current one , and is referred to as CNS3. It lists a total of 3,803 stars. Most of these stars already had GJ numbers, but there were also 1,388 which were not numbered. The need to give these 1,388 ''some'' name has resulted in them being numbered 3001–4388 (NN numbers, for "no name"), and data files of this catalogue now usually include these numbers. An example of a star which is often referred to by one of these unofficial GJ numbers is GJ 3021.


GCTP

The General Catalogue of Trigonometric Parallaxes, first published in 1952 and later superseded by the New GCTP (now in its fourth edition), covers nearly 9,000 stars. Unlike the Gliese, it does not cut off at a given distance from the Sun; rather it attempts to catalogue all known measured parallaxes. It gives the co-ordinates in 1900 epoch, the secular variation, the proper motion, the weighted average absolute parallax and its standard error, the number of parallax observations, quality of interagreement of the different values, the visual magnitude and various cross-identifications with other catalogues. Auxiliary information, including UBV photometry, MK spectral types, data on the variability and binary nature of the stars, orbits when available, and miscellaneous information to aid in determining the reliability of the data are also listed.
1952 edition and 1962 supplement.
Louise Freeland Jenkins, Louise F. Jenkins, Yale University Observatory. :William F. van Altena, John Truen-liang Lee and Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit, Yale University Observatory, 1995.


Proper motion catalogues

A common way of detecting nearby stars is to look for relatively high proper motions. Several catalogues exist, of which we'll mention a few. The Frank Elmore Ross, Ross and Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf, Wolf catalogues pioneered the domain: :Frank Elmore Ross, Ross, Frank Elmore, ''New Proper Motion Stars'', eight successive lists, ''The Astronomical Journal'', Vol. 36 to 48, 1925–1939 :Max Wolf, Wolf, Max, "Katalog von 1053 stärker bewegten Fixsternen", Veröff. d. Badischen Sternwarte zu Heidelberg (Königstuhl), Bd. 7, No. 10, 1919; and numerous lists in ''Astronomische Nachrichten'', 209 to 236, 1919–1929 Willem Jacob Luyten later produced a series of catalogues: L – Luyten, Proper motion stars and White dwarfs :Luyten, W. J., ''Proper Motion Survey with the forty-eight inch Schmidt Telescope'', University of Minnesota, 1941
''General Catalogue of the Bruce Proper-Motion Survey''
LFT – Luyten Five-Tenths catalogue :Luyten, W. J., ''A Catalog of 1849 Stars with Proper Motion exceeding 0.5" annually'', Lund Press, Minneapolis (Mn), 1955

LHS – Luyten Half-Second catalogue :Luyten, W. J., ''Catalogue of stars with proper motions exceeding 0"5 annually'', University of Minnesota, 1979

LTT – Luyten Two-Tenths catalogue :Luyten, W. J. ''Luyten's Two Tenths. A catalogue of 9867 stars in the Southern Hemisphere with proper motions exceeding 0".2 annually'', Minneapolis, 1957; ''A catalogue of 7127 stars in the Northern Hemisphere with proper motions exceeding 0".2 annually``, Minneapolis, 1961; also supplements 1961–1962.

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1961POMin...3h...1

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1962LTTS1.C......0L])'' NLTT – New Luyten Two-Tenths catalogue :Luyten, W. J., ''New Luyten Catalogue of stars with proper motions larger than two tenths of an arcsecond (NLTT)'', Univ. of Minnesota, 1979, supplement 1980

http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/Cat?I/98A]) LPM – Luyten Proper-Motion catalogue : Luyten, W. J., ''Proper Motion Survey with the 48 inch Schmidt Telescope'', University of Minnesota, 1963–1981 ::LP numbers: L in zones −45 to −89 deg.; LP in zones +89 to −44 deg. Around the same time period, Henry Lee Giclas worked on a similar series of catalogues: :Giclas, H. L., et al., ''Lowell Proper Motion Survey'', ''Lowell Observatory Bulletin'', 1971–1979


Struve Double Star Catalog

Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve discovered a very large number of double stars and in 1827 published his Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve#Works, double star catalogue ''Catalogus novus stellarum duplicium''. For example, binary star 61 Cygni is designated "Struve 2758" or "STF 2758". Stars of his catalogue are sometimes indicated by the Greek letter sigma, Σ. Thus, 61 Cygni is also designated as Σ2758.


uvby98

The ''ubvyβ Photoelectric Photometric Catalogue'' is a compilation of previously published photometric data. Published in 1998, the catalogue includes 63,316 stars surveyed through 1996.


ZC catalogue

The Robertson's ''Zodiacal Catalogue'', collected by the astronomer James Robertson (astronomer), James Robertson, is a catalogue of 3539 zodiacal stars brighter than 9th magnitude. It is mainly used for Occultation, Star Occultations by the Moon.


Successors to USNO-A, etc

Stars evolve and move over time, making catalogues evolving, impermanent databases at even the most rigorous levels of production. The USNO catalogues are the most current and widely used astrometric catalogues available at present, and include USNO products such as Star catalogue#USNO-B1.0, USNO-B (the successor to USNO-A), NOMAD, UCAC and others in production or narrowly released. Some users may see specialized catalogues (more recent versions of the above), tailored catalogues, interferometrically-produced catalogues, dynamic catalogues, and those with updated positions, motions, colors, and improved errors. Catalogue data is continually collected at the Naval Observatory dark-sky facility, United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station, NOFS; and the latest refined, updated catalogues are reduced and produced by NOFS and the United States Naval Observatory, USNO. See the United States Naval Observatory, USNO Catalog and Image Servers for more information and access.


See also

*Gaia (spacecraft), ''Gaia'' spacecraft *List of astronomical catalogues *Messier object *New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars


References


Bibliography


Further reading

* *


External links


Current Public, High-Metric Accuracy Star Catalogues produced by USNO



NASA Astronomy Data Center

Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg

Sloan Digital Sky Survey

IAU FAQ on "Naming Stars"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Star Catalogue Astrometry Astronomical catalogues of stars, * Astronomical catalogues, * Stellar astronomy, Catalogue