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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
All stars but one can be associated with an IAU (International Astronomical Union) constellation. IAU constellations are areas of the sky. Although there are only 88 IAU constellations, the sky is actually divided into 89 irregularly shaped boxes as the constellation Serpens is split into two separate sections, Serpens Caput (the snake's head) to the west and Serpens Cauda (the snake's tail ...
The constellations along the ecliptic are called the zodiac. When explorers mapped the stars of the southern skies, European astronomers proposed new constellations for that region, as well as ones to fill gaps between the traditional constellations. Because of their Roman and European origins, every constellation has a Latin name.
In 2016, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) [2] to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin, dated July 2016, [3] included a table of 125 stars comprising the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN (on 30 June and 20 July 2016) together with names of stars adopted by the IAU Executive Committee ...
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. [43]
Rather, star names are selected on a non-commercial basis by a small number of international organizations of astronomers, scientists, and registration bodies, who assign names consisting usually of a Greek letter followed by the star's constellation name, or less frequently based on their ancient traditional name.
Examples include Alpha Andromedae (α And) in the constellation of Andromeda, Alpha Centauri (α Cen), in the constellation Centaurus, Alpha Crucis (α Cru) and Beta Crucis (β Cru), the two brightest stars in the constellation Crux, the Southern Cross, Epsilon Carinae (ε Car) in Carina, Lambda Scorpii (λ Sco) in Scorpius and Sigma Sagittarii ...
Also called Algedi or Giedi, the traditional names of α Capricorni come from the Arabic word for "the kid", which references the constellation's mythology. [3] β Capricorni is a double star also known as Dabih. It is a yellow-hued giant star of magnitude 3.1, 340 light-years from Earth. The secondary is a blue-white hued star of magnitude 6.1.