Constellation

A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived
pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.[1]

The first constellations likely go back to prehistory. People used them to relate stories of their beliefs,
experiences, creation, mythology. Different cultures and countries invented their own constellations,
some of which lasted into the early 20th century before today's constellations were internationally
recognized. The recognition of constellations has changed significantly over time. Many changed in size
or shape. Some became popular, only to drop into obscurity. Some were limited to a single culture or
nation. Naming constellations also helped astronomers and navigators identify stars more easily.[2]

Twelve (or thirteen) ancient constellations belong to the zodiac (straddling the ecliptic, which the Sun,
Moon, and planets all traverse). The origins of the zodiac remain historically uncertain; its astrological
divisions became prominent c. 400 BC in Babylonian or Chaldean astronomy.[3] Constellations appear
in Western culture via Greece and are mentioned in the works of Hesiod, Eudoxus and Aratus. The
traditional 48 constellations, consisting of the Zodiac and 36 more (now 38, following the division of
Argo Navis into three constellations) are listed by Ptolemy, a Greco-Roman astronomer from
Alexandria, Egypt, in his Almagest. The formation of constellations was the subject of extensive
mythology, most notably in the Metamorphoses of the Latin poet Ovid. Constellations in the far
southern sky were added from the 15th century until the mid-18th century when European explorers
began traveling to the Southern Hemisphere. Due to Roman and European transmission, each
constellation has a Latin name.

In 1922, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally accepted the modern list of 88
constellations, and in 1928 adopted official constellation boundaries that together cover the entire
celestial sphere.[4][5] Any given point in a celestial coordinate system lies in one of the modern
constellations. Some astronomical naming systems include the constellation where a given celestial
object is found to convey its approximate location in the sky. The Flamsteed designation of a star, for
example, consists of a number and the genitive form of the constellation's name.

Other star patterns or groups called asterisms are not constellations under the formal definition, but are
also used by observers to navigate the night sky. Asterisms may be several stars within a constellation,
or they may share stars with more than one constellation. Examples of asterisms include the teapot
within the constellation Sagittarius, or the big dipper in the constellation of Ursa Major.[6][7]

Terminology
The word constellation comes from the Late Latin term cōnstellātiō, which can be translated as "set of
stars"; it came into use in Middle English during the 14th century.[8] The Ancient Greek word for
constellation is ἄστρον (astron). These terms historically referred to any recognisable pattern of stars
whose appearance was associated with mythological characters or creatures, earthbound animals, or
objects.[1] Over time, among European astronomers, the constellations became clearly defined and
widely recognised. Today, there are 88 IAU designated constellations.[9]

A constellation or star that never sets below the horizon when viewed from a particular latitude on Earth
is termed circumpolar. From the North Pole or South Pole, all constellations south or north of the
celestial equator are circumpolar. Depending on the definition, equatorial constellations may include
those that lie between declinations 45° north and 45° south,[10] or those that pass through the
declination range of the ecliptic or zodiac ranging between 23½° north, the celestial equator, and 23½°
south.[11][12]

Stars in constellations can appear near each other in the sky, but they usually lie at a variety of distances
away from the Earth. Since each star has its own independent motion, all constellations will change
slowly over time. After tens to hundreds of thousands of years, familiar outlines will become
unrecognizable.[13] Astronomers can predict the past or future constellation outlines by measuring
individual stars' common proper motions or cpm[14] by accurate astrometry[15][16] and their radial
velocities by astronomical spectroscopy.[17]

Identification
The 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union as well as those that cultures
have recognized throughout history are imagined figures and shapes derived from the patterns of stars
in the observable sky.[18] Many officially recognized constellations are based on the imaginations of
ancient, Near Eastern and Mediterranean mythologies.[19] H.A. Rey, who wrote popular books on
astronomy, pointed out the imaginative nature of the constellations and their mythological and artistic
basis, and the practical use of identifying them through definite images, according to the classical names
they were given.[20]

History of the early constellations

Lascaux Caves, southern France

It has been suggested that the 17,000-year-old cave paintings in Lascaux, southern France, depict star
constellations such as Taurus, Orion's Belt, and the Pleiades. However, this view is not generally
accepted among scientists.[21][22]

Mesopotamia
Inscribed stones and clay writing tablets from Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq) dating to 3000 BC
provide the earliest generally accepted evidence for humankind's identification of constellations.[23] It
seems that the bulk of the Mesopotamian constellations were created within a relatively short interval
from around 1300 to 1000 BC. Mesopotamian constellations appeared later in many of the classical
Greek constellations.[24]

Ancient Near East

The oldest Babylonian catalogues of stars and constellations date back to the beginning of the Middle
Bronze Age, most notably the Three Stars Each texts and the MUL.APIN, an expanded and revised
version based on more accurate observation from around 1000 BC. However, the numerous Sumerian
names in these catalogues suggest that they built on older, but otherwise unattested, Sumerian
traditions of the Early Bronze Age.[25]

The classical Zodiac is a revision of Neo-Babylonian constellations from the 6th century BC. The Greeks
adopted the Babylonian constellations in the 4th century BC. Twenty Ptolemaic constellations are from
the Ancient Near East. Another ten have the same stars but different names.[24]

Biblical scholar E. W. Bullinger interpreted some of the creatures mentioned in the books of Ezekiel and
Revelation as the middle signs of the four-quarters of the Zodiac,[26][27] with the Lion as Leo, the Bull as
Taurus, the Man representing Aquarius, and the Eagle standing in for Scorpio.[28] The biblical Book of
Job also makes reference to a number of constellations, including ‫‘ עיש‬Ayish
"bier", ‫ כסיל‬chesil "fool" and ‫ כימה‬chimah "heap" (Job 9:9, 38:31–32),
rendered as "Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades" by the KJV, but ‘Ayish "the
bier" actually corresponding to Ursa Major.[29] The term Mazzaroth ‫ַמָזּרוֹת‬,
translated as a garland of crowns, is a hapax legomenon in Job 38:32, and
it might refer to the zodiacal constellations.

Classical antiquity
There is only limited information on ancient Greek constellations, with
some fragmentary evidence being found in the Works and Days of the
Greek poet Hesiod, who mentioned the "heavenly bodies".[30] Greek
astronomy essentially adopted the older Babylonian system in the
Hellenistic era, first introduced to Greece by Eudoxus of Cnidus in the 4th
Babylonian tablet recording
century BC. The original work of Eudoxus is lost, but it survives as a
Halley's Comet in 164 BC
versification by Aratus, dating to the 3rd century BC. The most complete
existing works dealing with the mythical origins of the constellations are by
the Hellenistic writer termed pseudo-Eratosthenes and an early Roman
writer styled pseudo-Hyginus. The basis of Western astronomy as taught
during Late Antiquity and until the Early Modern period is the Almagest by
Ptolemy, written in the 2nd century.

In the Ptolemaic Kingdom, native Egyptian tradition of anthropomorphic

figures represented the planets, stars, and various constellations.[31] Some
of these were combined with Greek and Babylonian astronomical systems
culminating in the Zodiac of Dendera; it remains unclear when this
occurred, but most were placed during the Roman period between 2nd to
4th centuries AD. The oldest known depiction of the zodiac showing all the
now familiar constellations, along with some original Egyptian Egyptian star chart and
decanal clock, from the
constellations, decans, and planets.[23][32] Ptolemy's Almagest remained
ceiling of Senenmut's tomb,
the standard definition of constellations in the medieval period both in
c. 1473 BC
Europe and in Islamic astronomy.

Ancient China
Ancient China had a long tradition of observing celestial
phenomena.[33] Nonspecific Chinese star names, later categorized in
the twenty-eight mansions, have been found on oracle bones from
Anyang, dating back to the middle Shang dynasty. These
constellations are some of the most important observations of
Chinese sky, attested from the 5th century BC. Parallels to the
earliest Babylonian (Sumerian) star catalogues suggest that the
ancient Chinese system did not arise independently.[34]
Chinese star map with a cylindrical
Three schools of classical Chinese astronomy in the Han period are projection (Su Song)
attributed to astronomers of the earlier Warring States period. The
constellations of the three schools were conflated into a single
system by Chen Zhuo, an astronomer of the 3rd century (Three Kingdoms period). Chen Zhuo's work
has been lost, but information on his system of constellations survives in Tang period records, notably
by Qutan Xida. The oldest extant Chinese star chart dates to that period and was preserved as part of the
Dunhuang Manuscripts. Native Chinese astronomy flourished during the Song dynasty, and during the
Yuan dynasty became increasingly influenced by medieval Islamic astronomy (see Treatise on Astrology
of the Kaiyuan Era).[34] As maps were prepared during this period on more scientific lines, they were
considered as more reliable.[35]

A well-known map from the Song period is the Suzhou Astronomical Chart, which was prepared with
carvings of stars on the planisphere of the Chinese sky on a stone plate; it is done accurately based on
observations, and it shows the supernova of the year of 1054 in Taurus.[35]

Influenced by European astronomy during the late Ming dynasty, charts depicted more stars but
retained the traditional constellations. Newly observed stars were incorporated as supplementary to old
constellations in the southern sky, which did not depict the traditional stars recorded by ancient Chinese
astronomers. Further improvements were made during the later part of the Ming dynasty by Xu
Guangqi and Johann Adam Schall von Bell, the German Jesuit and was recorded in Chongzhen Lishu
(Calendrical Treatise of Chongzhen period, 1628). Traditional Chinese star maps incorporated 23 new
constellations with 125 stars of the southern hemisphere of the sky based on the knowledge of Western
star charts; with this improvement, the Chinese Sky was integrated with the World astronomy.[35][36]

Early modern astronomy

Historically, the origins of the constellations of the northern and southern skies are distinctly different.
Most northern constellations date to antiquity, with names based mostly on Classical Greek legends.[11]
Evidence of these constellations has survived in the form of star charts, whose oldest representation
appears on the statue known as the Farnese Atlas, based perhaps on the star catalogue of the Greek
astronomer Hipparchus.[37] Southern constellations are more modern inventions, sometimes as
substitutes for ancient constellations (e.g. Argo Navis). Some southern constellations had long names
that were shortened to more usable forms; e.g. Musca Australis became simply Musca.[11]

Some of the early constellations were never universally adopted. Stars were often grouped into
constellations differently by different observers, and the arbitrary constellation boundaries often led to
confusion as to which constellation a celestial object belonged. Before astronomers delineated precise
boundaries (starting in the 19th century), constellations generally appeared as ill-defined regions of the
sky.[38] Today they now follow officially accepted designated lines of right ascension and declination
based on those defined by Benjamin Gould in epoch 1875.0 in his star catalogue Uranometria
Argentina.[39]

The 1603 star atlas "Uranometria" of Johann Bayer assigned stars to individual constellations and
formalized the division by assigning a series of Greek and Latin letters to the stars within each
constellation. These are known today as Bayer designations.[40] Subsequent star atlases led to the
development of today's accepted modern constellations.

Origin of the southern constellations

The southern sky, below about −65° declination, was only partially catalogued by ancient Babylonians,
Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese, and Persian astronomers of the north. The knowledge that northern and
southern star patterns differed goes back to Classical writers, who describe, for example, the African
circumnavigation expedition commissioned by Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II in c. 600 BC and those of
Hanno the Navigator in c. 500 BC.

The history of southern constellations is not straightforward. Different groupings and different names
were proposed by various observers, some reflecting national traditions or designed to promote various
sponsors. Southern constellations were important from the 14th to
16th centuries, when sailors used the stars for celestial navigation.
Italian explorers who recorded new southern constellations include
Andrea Corsali, Antonio Pigafetta, and Amerigo Vespucci.[28]

Many of the 88 IAU-recognized constellations in this region first

appeared on celestial globes developed in the late 16th century by
Petrus Plancius, based mainly on observations of the Dutch
navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser[41] and Frederick de Houtman. Sketch of the southern celestial sky
[42][43][44][45] These became widely known through Johann Bayer's by Portuguese astronomer João
star atlas Uranometria of 1603.[46] Fourteen more were created in Faras (1 May 1500)
1763 by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, who also
split the ancient constellation Argo Navis into three; these new
figures appeared in his star catalogue, published in 1756.[47]

Several modern proposals have not survived. The French

astronomers Pierre Lemonnier and Joseph Lalande, for example,
proposed constellations that were once popular but have since been
dropped. The northern constellation Quadrans Muralis survived into
the 19th century (when its name was attached to the Quadrantid
meteor shower), but is now divided between Boötes and Draco. A celestial map from the Golden
Age of Netherlandish cartography,
by the Dutch cartographer Frederik
88 modern constellations de Wit

A list of 88 constellations was produced for the International

Astronomical Union in 1922.[5] It is roughly based on the traditional Greek constellations listed by
Ptolemy in his Almagest in the 2nd century and Aratus' work Phenomena, with early modern
modifications and additions (most importantly introducing constellations covering the parts of the
southern sky unknown to Ptolemy) by Petrus Plancius (1592, 1597/98 and 1613), Johannes Hevelius
(1690) and Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (1763),[48][49][50] who introduced fourteen new constellations.[51]
Lacaille studied the stars of the southern hemisphere from 1751 until 1752 from the Cape of Good Hope,
when he was said to have observed more than 10,000 stars using a refracting telescope with an aperture
of 0.5 inches (13 mm).

In 1922, Henry Norris Russell produced a list of 88 constellations with three-letter abbreviations for
them.[52] However, these constellations did not have clear borders between them. In 1928, the
International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally accepted 88 modern constellations, with contiguous
boundaries[53] along vertical and horizontal lines of right ascension and declination developed by
Eugene Delporte that, together, cover the entire celestial sphere;[5][54] this list was finally published in
1930.[4] Where possible, these modern constellations usually share the names of their Graeco-Roman
predecessors, such as Orion, Leo or Scorpius. The aim of this system is area-mapping, i.e. the division of
the celestial sphere into contiguous fields.[48] Out of the 88 modern constellations, 36 lie predominantly
in the northern sky, and the other 52 predominantly in the southern.
 Equirectangular plot of
declination vs right ascension of
stars brighter than apparent
magnitude 5 on the Hipparcos
Catalogue, coded by spectral
type and apparent magnitude,
relative to the modern
constellations and the ecliptic

The boundaries developed by Delporte used data that originated back to epoch B1875.0, which was
when Benjamin A. Gould first made his proposal to designate boundaries for the celestial sphere,[55] a
suggestion on which Delporte based his work. The consequence of this early date is that because of the
precession of the equinoxes, the borders on a modern star map, such as epoch J2000, are already
somewhat skewed and no longer perfectly vertical or horizontal.[56] This effect will increase over the
years and centuries to come.

Symbols
The constellations have no official symbols, though those of the ecliptic may take the signs of the zodiac.
[57] Symbols for the other modern constellations, as well as older ones that still occur in modern

nomenclature, have occasionally been published.[58]

Dark cloud constellations

The Milky Way as seen by Gaia, with prominent dark features labeled in white, as well as prominent star clouds
labeled in black.

The Great Rift, a series of dark patches in the Milky Way, is more visible and striking in the southern
hemisphere than in the northern. It vividly stands out when conditions are otherwise so dark that the
Milky Way's central region casts shadows on the ground.[59] Some cultures have discerned shapes in
these patches and have given names to these "dark cloud constellations". Members of the Inca
civilization identified various dark areas or dark nebulae in the Milky Way as animals and associated
their appearance with the seasonal rains.[60][61][62] Australian Aboriginal astronomy also describes dark
cloud constellations, the most famous being the "emu in the sky" whose head is formed by the Coalsack,
a dark nebula, instead of the stars.[63]

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6JHA....17..189S). doi:10.1177/002182868601700304 (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00218286860170
0304). S2CID 118829690 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:118829690).
41. Sawyer Hogg, Helen (1951). "Out of Old Books (Pieter Dircksz Keijser, Delineator of the Southern
Constellations)". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 45: 215.
Bibcode:1951JRASC..45..215S (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1951JRASC..45..215S).
42. Knobel, E. B. (1917). On Frederick de Houtman's Catalogue of Southern Stars, and the Origin of the
Southern Constellations. (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 77, pp. 414–32)
43. Dekker, Elly (1987). Early Explorations of the Southern Celestial Sky. (Annals of Science 44, pp.
439–70)
44. Dekker, Elly (1987). On the Dispersal of Knowledge of the Southern Celestial Sky. (Der
Globusfreund, 35–37, pp. 211–30)
45. Verbunt, Frank; van Gent, Robert H. (2011). Early Star Catalogues of the Southern Sky: De
Houtman, Kepler (Second and Third Classes), and Halley. (Astronomy & Astrophysics 530)
46. Ian Ridpath. "Johann Bayer's southern star chart" (http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/bayer-souther
n.html). Star Tales.
47. Ian Ridpath. "Lacaille's southern planisphere of 1756" (http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/lacaille.ht
ml). Star Tales.
48. "The Constellations" (https://www.iau.org/public/themes/constellations/). IAU – International
Astronomical Union. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
49. Ian Ridpath. "Constellation names, abbreviations and sizes" (http://www.ianridpath.com/constellation
s1.html). Retrieved 30 August 2015.
50. Ian Ridpath. "Star Tales – The Almagest" (http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/almagest.html).
Retrieved 30 August 2015.
51. Ian Ridpath. "Nicolas Louis de Lacaille at the Cape" (http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/startales1
d.html#lacaille). Retrieved 4 July 2022.
52. "The original names and abbreviations for constellations from 1922" (http://www.ianridpath.com/iauli
st1.html). Retrieved 31 January 2010.
53. "Constellation boundaries" (http://www.ianridpath.com/boundaries.html). Retrieved 24 May 2011.
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Treasury: From the Music of the Spheres to the Conquest of Space (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=0ZFXiNn62ZEC&pg=PA80). Cambridge University Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-521-80040-2.
55. Ian Ridpath. "Benjamin Apthorp Gould and the Uranometria Argentina" (http://www.ianridpath.com/st
artales/gould.html). Star Tales.
56. A.C. Davenhall & S.K. Leggett, "A Catalogue of Constellation Boundary Data" (http://cdsarc.u-strasb
g.fr/ftp/cats/VI/49/constell.pdf), (Centre de Donneés astronomiques de Strasbourg, February 1990).
57. For example, in the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the year 1833 (Board of
Admiralty, London)
58. Peter Grego (2012) The Star Book: Stargazing Throughout the Seasons in the Northern
Hemisphere. F+W Media.
59. Rao, Joe (11 September 2009). "A Great Week to See the Milky Way" (http://www.space.com/7270-
great-week-milky.html). Space. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
60. "Night sky" (https://web.archive.org/web/20101216041003/http://www.astronomy.pomona.edu/arche
o/andes/inca.nightsky.html). Astronomy.pomona.edu. Archived from the original (http://www.astrono
my.pomona.edu/archeo/andes/inca.nightsky.html) on 16 December 2010. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
61. Dearborn, D.S.P.; White, R.E. (1983). "The "Torreon" of Machu Picchu as an Observatory".
Archaeoastronomy. 14 (5): S37. Bibcode:1983JHAS...14...37D (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1
983JHAS...14...37D).
62. Krupp, Edwin (1994). Echoes of the Ancient Skies. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc. pp. 47–51.
ISBN 978-0486428826.
63. Bordeleau, André G. (2013). Flags of the Night Sky: When Astronomy Meets National Pride (https://
books.google.com/books?id=NSu5BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA124). Springer Science & Business Media.
pp. 124–. ISBN 978-1-4614-0929-8.

Further reading

Mythology, lore, history, and archaeoastronomy

▪ Allen, Richard Hinckley. (1899) Star-Names And Their Meanings, G. E. Stechert, New York,
hardcover; reprint 1963 as Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola,
NY, ISBN 978-0-486-21079-7 softcover.
▪ Olcott, William Tyler. (1911); Star Lore of All Ages, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, hardcover;
reprint 2004 as Star Lore: Myths, Legends, and Facts, Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola, NY,
ISBN 978-0-486-43581-7 softcover.
▪ Kelley, David H. and Milone, Eugene F. (2004) Exploring Ancient Skies: An Encyclopedic Survey of
Archaeoastronomy, Springer, ISBN 978-0-387-95310-6 hardcover.
▪ Ridpath, Ian. (2018) Star Tales 2nd ed., Lutterworth Press, ISBN 978-0-718-89478-8 softcover.
▪ Staal, Julius D. W. (1988) The New Patterns in the Sky: Myths and Legends of the Stars, McDonald
& Woodward Publishing Co., ISBN 0-939923-10-6 hardcover, ISBN 0-939923-04-1 softcover.
▪ Rogers, John H. (1998). "Origins of the Ancient Constellations: I. The Mesopotamian Traditions".
Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 108: 9–28. Bibcode:1998JBAA..108....9R (https://u
i.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998JBAA..108....9R).
▪ Rogers, John H. (1998). "Origins of the Ancient Constellations: II. The Mediterranean Traditions".
Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 108: 79–89. Bibcode:1998JBAA..108...79R (https://u
i.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998JBAA..108...79R).

Atlases and celestial maps

General and nonspecialized – entire celestial heavens

▪ Becvar, Antonin. Atlas Coeli. Published as Atlas of the Heavens,

Sky Publishing Corporation, Cambridge, MA, with coordinate
grid transparency overlay.
▪ Norton, Arthur Philip. (1910) Norton's Star Atlas, 20th Edition
2003 as Norton's Star Atlas and Reference Handbook, edited by
Ridpath, Ian, Pi Press, ISBN 978-0-13-145164-3, hardcover.
▪ National Geographic Society. (1957, 1970, 2001, 2007) The
Heavens (1970), Cartographic Division of the National
Geographic Society (NGS), Washington, DC, two-sided large
map chart depicting the constellations of the heavens; as a
special supplement to the August 1970 issue of National Ottoman period celestial map, signs
Geographic. Forerunner map as A Map of The Heavens, as a of the Zodiac and lunar mansions
special supplement to the December 1957 issue. Current version (Zubdat al-Tawarikh)
2001 (Tirion), with 2007 reprint.
▪ Sinnott, Roger W. and Perryman, Michael A.C. (1997)
Millennium Star Atlas, Epoch 2000.0, Sky Publishing Corporation, Cambridge, MA, and European
Space Agency (ESA), ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Subtitle: "An All-Sky Atlas Comprising
One Million Stars to Visual Magnitude Eleven from the Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues and Ten
Thousand Nonstellar Objects". 3 volumes, hardcover, ISBN 0-933346-84-0. Vol. 1, 0–8 Hours (Right
Ascension), ISBN 0-933346-81-6 hardcover; Vol. 2, 8–16 Hours, ISBN 0-933346-82-4 hardcover;
Vol. 3, 16–24 Hours, ISBN 0-933346-83-2 hardcover. Softcover version available. Supplemental
separate purchasable coordinate grid transparent overlays.
▪ Tirion, Wil; et al. (1987) Uranometria 2000.0, Willmann-Bell, Inc., Richmond, VA, 3 volumes,
hardcover. Vol. 1 (1987): "The Northern Hemisphere to −6°", by Wil Tirion, Barry Rappaport, and
George Lovi, ISBN 0-943396-14-X hardcover, printed boards. Vol. 2 (1988): "The Southern
Hemisphere to +6°", by Wil Tirion, Barry Rappaport and George Lovi, ISBN 0-943396-15-8
hardcover, printed boards. Vol. 3 (1993) as a separate added work: The Deep Sky Field Guide to
Uranometria 2000.0, by Murray Cragin, James Lucyk, and Barry Rappaport, ISBN 0-943396-38-7
hardcover, printed boards. 2nd Edition 2001 as collective set of 3 volumes – Vol. 1: Uranometria
2000.0 Deep Sky Atlas, by Wil Tirion, Barry Rappaport, and Will Remaklus,
ISBN 978-0-943396-71-2 hardcover, printed boards; Vol. 2: Uranometria 2000.0 Deep Sky Atlas, by
Wil Tirion, Barry Rappaport, and Will Remaklus, ISBN 978-0-943396-72-9 hardcover, printed
boards; Vol. 3: Uranometria 2000.0 Deep Sky Field Guide by Murray Cragin and Emil Bonanno,
ISBN 978-0-943396-73-6, hardcover, printed boards.
▪ Tirion, Wil and Sinnott, Roger W. (1998) Sky Atlas 2000.0, various editions. 2nd Deluxe Edition,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.

Northern celestial hemisphere and north circumpolar region

▪ Becvar, Antonin. (1962) Atlas Borealis 1950.0, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences

(Ceskoslovenske Akademie Ved), Praha, Czechoslovakia, 1st Edition, elephant folio hardcover, with
small transparency overlay coordinate grid square and separate paper magnitude legend ruler. 2nd
Edition 1972 and 1978 reprint, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Ceskoslovenske Akademie
Ved), Prague, Czechoslovakia, and Sky Publishing Corporation, Cambridge, MA,
ISBN 0-933346-01-8 oversize folio softcover spiral-bound, with transparency overlay coordinate grid
ruler.

Equatorial, ecliptic, and zodiacal celestial sky

▪ Becvar, Antonin. (1958) Atlas Eclipticalis 1950.0, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences

(Ceskoslovenske Akademie Ved), Praha, Czechoslovakia, 1st Edition, elephant folio hardcover, with
small transparency overlay coordinate grid square and separate paper magnitude legend ruler. 2nd
 Edition 1974, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Ceskoslovenske Akademie Ved), Prague,
Czechoslovakia, and Sky Publishing Corporation, Cambridge, MA, oversize folio softcover spiral-
bound, with transparency overlay coordinate grid ruler.

Southern celestial hemisphere and south circumpolar region

▪ Becvar, Antonin. Atlas Australis 1950.0, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Ceskoslovenske

Akademie Ved), Praha, Czechoslovakia, 1st Edition, hardcover, with small transparency overlay
coordinate grid square and separate paper magnitude legend ruler. 2nd Edition, Czechoslovak
Academy of Sciences (Ceskoslovenske Akademie Ved), Prague, Czechoslovakia, and Sky
Publishing Corporation, Cambridge, MA, oversize folio softcover spiral-bound, with transparency
overlay coordinate grid ruler.

Catalogs
▪ Becvar, Antonin. (1959) Atlas Coeli II Katalog 1950.0, Praha, 1960 Prague. Published 1964 as Atlas
of the Heavens – II Catalogue 1950.0, Sky Publishing Corporation, Cambridge, MA
▪ Hirshfeld, Alan and Sinnott, Roger W. (1982) Sky Catalogue 2000.0, Cambridge University Press
and Sky Publishing Corporation, 1st Edition, 2 volumes. LCCN 81-17975 (https://www.loc.gov/item/8
1017975) both vols., and LCCN 83-240310 (https://www.loc.gov/item/83240310) vol. 1. "Volume 1:
Stars to Magnitude 8.0", ISBN 0-521-24710-1 (Cambridge) and ISBN 0-933346-35-2 hardcover,
ISBN 0-933346-34-4 softcover. Vol. 2 (1985) – "Volume 2: Double Stars, Variable Stars, and
Nonstellar Objects", ISBN 0-521-25818-9 (Cambridge) hardcover, ISBN 0-521-27721-3 (Cambridge)
softcover. 2nd Edition (1991) with additional third author François Ochsenbein, 2 volumes,
LCCN 91-26764 (https://www.loc.gov/item/91026764). Vol. 1: ISBN 0-521-41743-0 (Cambridge)
hardcover; ISBN 0-521-42736-3 (Cambridge) softcover . Vol. 2 (1999): ISBN 0-521-27721-3
(Cambridge) softcover and 0-933346-38-7 softcover – reprint of 1985 edition.
▪ Yale University Observatory. (1908, et al.) Catalogue of Bright Stars, New Haven, CN. Referred to
commonly as "Bright Star Catalogue". Various editions with various authors historically, the longest
term revising author as (Ellen) Dorrit Hoffleit. 1st Edition 1908. 2nd Edition 1940 by Frank
Schlesinger and Louise F. Jenkins. 3rd Edition (1964), 4th Edition, 5th Edition (1991), and 6th
Edition (pending posthumous) by Hoffleit.