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Star chart. A celestial map by the Dutch cartographer Frederik de Wit, 1670. 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. [1] They have been used for human navigation since time immemorial. [2]
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, and mythology.
Celestial cartography, [1] uranography, [2][3] astrography or star cartography[citation needed] is the aspect of astronomy and branch of cartography concerned with mapping stars, galaxies, and other astronomical objects on the celestial sphere. Measuring the position and light of charted objects requires a variety of instruments and techniques.
Cartography (/ kɑːrˈtɒɡrəfi /; from Ancient Greek: χάρτης chartēs, 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and γράφειν graphein, 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can be modeled in ways that ...
720,000 km/h (450,000 mi/h) [10] Orbital period. ~230 million years [10] The Solar System[d] is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it. [11] It formed about 4.6 billion years ago when a dense region of a molecular cloud collapsed, forming the Sun and a protoplanetary disc.
Coordinate systems in astronomy can specify an object's relative position in three-dimensional space or plot merely by its direction on a celestial sphere, if the object's distance is unknown or trivial. Spherical coordinates, projected on the celestial sphere, are analogous to the geographic coordinate system used on the surface of Earth.
The Ancient Greeks developed astronomy, which they treated as a branch of mathematics, to a highly sophisticated level. The first geometrical, three-dimensional models to explain the apparent motion of the planets were developed in the 4th century BC by Eudoxus of Cnidus and Callippus of Cyzicus.
Chinese astronomy. The Dunhuang map from the Tang dynasty ( schools were distinguished with different colors: white, black, and yellow for the stars of Wu Xian, Gan De, and Shi Shen respectively. The whole set of star maps contain 1,300 stars. Astronomy in China has a long history stretching from the Shang dynasty, being refined over a period ...