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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 were likely defined in prehistory. People used them to relate stories of their beliefs, experiences, creation, and ...
Each IAU constellation has an official three-letter abbreviation based on the genitive form of the constellation name. As the genitive is similar to the base name, the majority of the abbreviations are just the first three letters of the constellation name: Ori for Orion/Orionis, Ara for Ara/Arae, and Com for Coma Berenices/Comae Berenices.
The constellations were named mostly for exotic animals reported in the travel journals of that period, and were copied in Johann Bayer's influential celestial atlas Uranometria in 1603. The group includes Hydrus , Dorado , Volans , Apus , Pavo , Grus , Phoenix , Tucana , Indus , Chamaeleon , and Musca .
The names given to comets have followed several different conventions over the past two centuries. Before any systematic naming convention was adopted, comets were named in a variety of ways. The first one to be named was "Halley's Comet" (now officially known as Comet Halley), named after Edmond Halley, who had calculated
These former constellations are often found in older books, star charts, or star catalogues. The 88 modern constellation names and boundaries were standardised by Eugene Delporte for the IAU in 1930, under an international agreement, removing any possible astronomical ambiguities between astronomers from different countries. [3]
The following lists of constellations are available: IAU designated constellations – a list of the current, or "modern", constellations; Former constellations – a list of former constellations; Chinese constellations – traditional Chinese astronomy constellations; List of Nakshatras – sectors along the Moon's ecliptic
First presumed to be describing rules to a game, its use was later deciphered to be a unit converter for calculating the movement of celestial bodies and constellations. [5] Babylonian astronomers developed zodiacal signs. They are made up of the division of the sky into three sets of thirty degrees and the constellations that inhabit each ...
A Flamsteed designation is a combination of a number and constellation name that uniquely identifies most naked eye stars in the modern constellations visible from southern England. They are named for John Flamsteed who first used them while compiling his Historia Coelestis Britannica.