Star cartography

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"Uranography" redirects here. For other uses, see Uranography (disambiguation).
Title page of the Coelum Stellatum Christianum by Julius Schiller.
Title page of the Coelum Stellatum Christianum by Julius Schiller.

Star cartography, stellar cartography, celestial cartography, or uranography (Koine Greek ουρανος [IPA: uːra'nos], "sky, heaven" + γραφειν [IPA: gra'pʰiːn] "write") is the branch of astronomy concerned with mapping the stars, galaxies, and a multitude of other celestial bodies. Positioning and measuring the light of charted objects requires a multitude of instruments, that have developed from bare-eye angle measurements with quadrants, later lenses for light magnification have been combined into sextants, and in the current age, computer automated space telescopes have been measuring up accurate star positions. Uranographers have historically produced planetary position tables, star tables and star maps fit for amateur and professional observations, nowadays computerized star maps, and automated positioning of telescopes are routinely using huge databases of stars and other astronomical objects.

Contents

[edit] Astrometry

Main article: Astrometry
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[edit] Star catalogues

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Image:Hyg-aqr.png Image:Aqr-kstars.png
Aquarius according to
Hyginus		 Aquarius according to
Johann Bayer's Uranometria
based on the Rudolphine Tables		 Aquarius according to
KStars

A determining fact source for drawing star charts are naturally star tables. 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 based on precise star position measurements from the Rudolphine Tables by Tycho Brahe.

[edit] Important historical star tables

[edit] Star atlases

[edit] Naked eye atlases

A Chinese star map with cylindrical projection similar to Mercator projection, from Su Song's book Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao published in 1092.
A Chinese star map with cylindrical projection similar to Mercator projection, from Su Song's book Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao published in 1092.

[edit] Telescopic atlases

[edit] Photographic atlases

  • 1914 Franklin-Adams Charts, by John Franklin-Adams a very early photographic atlas,

[edit] Modern star atlases

  • 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)
  • 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 - Antonin Becvar (stars to magnitude 7.75) Out of print.
  • 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 - Roger Sinnott, Michael Perryman (stars to magnitude 11)
  • Wielki Atlas Nieba (Great Sky Atlas) - Piotr Brych (stars to magnitude 11)
  • Field Guide to the Stars and Planets - Jay M. Pasachoff, Wil Tirion charts (stars to magnitude 7.5)
  • SkyGX (still in preparation) - Christopher Watson (stars to magnitude 12)

[edit] Computerized star atlases

[edit] In fiction

See also: Galaxy class starship (Star Trek) and Intrepid class starship

The term Stellar cartography was used in Star Trek: The Next Generation as the name of a department aboard the Starship Enterprise-D. It was also used in Star Trek:Voyager as the name of the department aboard the Starship Voyager. In both cases, the department was a subsection of the ship's science department, and, as the name would suggest, its responsibilities include charting previously-uncharted regions of space as the ship passes through them, as well as operating the ship's astrometrics lab(s); in practice, at least on Voyager, this meant that Stellar Cartography was responsible for all sensor data collection and analysis other than for ship operations (navigation, cursory ship/planet scans, transporter operation, etc.) or combat.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links