Vol. 33, No. 3 September 2004 · 2018. 4. 4. · Martin George Launceston Planetarium Queen...

Journal of the International Planetarium Society

September 2004Vol. 33, No. 3

B a ye r ’s star designations appear onFlamsteed’s Atlas Coelestis (see page 6)

September 2004 Planetarian 1

The Planetarian (ISN 0090-3213) is published quarterly bythe International Planetarium Society. ©2004, Inter-national Planetarium Society, Inc., all rights reserved.Opinions expressed by authors are personal opinions andare not necessarily the opinions of the International Planetarium Society, its officers, oragents. Acceptance of advertisements, announcements, or other material does not imply en-dorsement by the International Planetarium Society, its officers or agents. The Editor wel-comes items for consideration for publication. Please consult "Guidelines for Contributors"at www.GriffithObs.org/IPSGuidelines.html. The Editor reserves the right to edit anymanuscript to suit this publication’s needs.

Index of AdvertisersAdler Planetarium ............................................................................................. 45 Astro-Tec ............................................................................................................ 39Audio-Visual Imagineering ............................................................................. 73Calgary Science Centre .................................................................................. 30Coronado ............................................................................................................ 49East Coast Control Systems .......................................................................... 36 Evans & Sutherland .......................................................... outside back coverFiske Planetarium .............................................................................................. 42GOTO INC ............................................................................................................ 31 Konica Minolta Planetarium Co. Ltd. ............................................ 28 and 79Learning Technologies, Inc. ........................................................................... 32 Mirage3D ............................................................................................................. 48 R. S. A. Cosmos ..................................................................... inside back coverScott Electric ..................................................................................................... 38 SEOS ........................................................................................................................ 5Sky-Skan, Inc. ...................................................................................... centerfoldSpitz, Inc. ............................................................................................................ 64Zeiss A.G. ............................................................................... inside front cover

Associate EditorsForum

Steve Tidey

Gibbous GazetteJames Hughes

International NewsLars Broman

Last LightApril S. Whitt

Mobile News NetworkSusan Button

NASA Space News Anita Sohus

Reviews April S. Whitt

What's NewJim Manning

Executive EditorJohn Mosley

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IndexA cumulative index of major articles that haveappeared in the Planetarian from the first issuethrough the current issue is available online atwww.GriffithObs.org/planetarian_index.pdf

Final DeadlinesMarch: January 21

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Planetarian journal WWW home page:www.GriffithObs.org/IPSPlanetarian.html

September, 2004 Vol. 33, No. 3

Articles6 How Astronomical Objects are Named . . . . . . . . . . . Jeanne Bishop

25 Reports from Armand Spitz Scholarship Recipients . . Lars Broman27 Kosuke Sasaki, 1933-2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Philip Groce

Columns29 NASA Space Science News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anita Sohus33 Mobile News Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Susan Reynolds Button37 Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April S. Whitt43 President’s Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jon Elvert 46 Forum: Religious Sensitivities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Steve Tidey50 What’s New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Manning65 International News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lars Broman74 Gibbous Gazette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Hughes80 Last Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April S. Whitt

C o v e r : Flamsteed’s magnificent Atlas Coelestis, pub-lished posthumously in 1729, used Bayer’s Greek-letterstar-naming system from more than a century earlier,but not Flamsteed’s star numbers. Both Bayer’s lettersand Flamsteed’s numbered stars appear on moderncharts as two of many astronomical naming systems inuse today, as explained by Jeanne Bishop beginning onpage 6. Map image courtesy John Mosley.

Association of Dutch SpeakingPlanetariums

Chris JanssenDirector, EuroplanetariumPlanetariumweg 193600 Genk Belgium+32 89 30 79 90+32 89 30 79 91 [email protected]

Association of French-SpeakingPlanetariums

Agnes AckerObservatoire de Strasbourg11, rue de l'universite67000 Strasbourg France03 90 24 24 6703 90 24 24 17 [email protected]@astro.u-strasbg.fr

Association of Mexican PlanetariumsIgnacio Castro PinalTorres de Mixcoac, A6-702C.P. 01490, México D.F. México(52) (55) 55 24 51 50(52) (55) 55 24 01 40 [email protected]

Association of Spanish PlanetariumsJavier ArmentiaPlanetario de PamplonaSancho Ramirez, 2E-31008 Pamplona Navarra Spain+34 948 260 004+34 948 260 056+34 948 261 919 [email protected]@pamplonetario.infonego-

cio.com

Australasian Planetarium SocietyGlen MoorePlanetarium, Science CentreUniversity of WollongongNorthfields Ave,Wollongong, NSW 2522 Australia+61 2 4286 5000+61 2 4283 6665 [email protected]://home.vicnet.net.au/~apsweb

British Association of PlanetariaTeresa GraftonLondon PlanetariumMarylebone RoadLondon NW1 5LR England United

Kingdom44 (0) 20 7487 024344 (0) 20 7465 0923 faxTeresa.Grafton@madame-

tussauds.com

Canadian Association of ScienceCentres

John Dickenson, Managing DirectorPacific Space Centre

H.R. MacMillan Planetarium1100 Chestnut StreetVancouver, British Columbia V6J 3J9Canada(1) 604-738-7827 ext.234(1) 604-736-5665 faxjdickens@hrmacmillanspacecentre

.com

Council of German PlanetariumsDr. Andreas Haenel,Planetarium des Museums am

SchoelerbergAm Schoelerberg 8D 49082 Osnabrueck Germany+49 541 560 0326+49 541 560 0337 [email protected]

European/MediterraneanPlanetarium Association

Dennis SimopoulosEugenides PlanetariumSyngrou Avenue-AmfitheaAthens Greece(30) 1 941 1181(30) 1 941 7372 [email protected]

Great Lakes Planetarium AssociationChuck Bueter15893 Ashville LaneGranger, Indiana 46530 USA(1) 574 271 [email protected]

Great Plains Planetarium AssociationJack DunnRalph Mueller PlanetariumUniversity of Nebraska- Lincoln210 Morrill HallLincoln, Nebraska 68588-0375 USA(1) 402-472-2641(1) 402-475-8899 [email protected]

Italian Planetaria’s FriendsAssociation

Loris RamponiNational Archive of Planetariac/o Centro Studi e Ricerche Serafino

Zanivia Bosca 24, C.P. 10425066 Lumezzane (Brescia) Italy(39) 30 87 21 64(39) 30 87 25 45 [email protected]

Japan Planetarium SocietyShoichi ItohPlanetarium UrSuginami Science Education Center3-3-13 Shimizu, Suginami-kuTokyo 167-0033 Japan(81) 3 3396 4391(81) 3 3396 4393 [email protected]@ba2.so-net.ne.jp

Middle Atlantic Planetarium SocietyPaul Krupinski180 Crandon Blvd.Mobile Dome PlanetariumBuffalo, New York 14225 USA(1) [email protected]

Nordic Planetarium AssociationLars BromanDalarna UniversitySE 791 88 Falun Sweden(46) 2310 [email protected]/npa

Pacific Planetarium AssociationGail Chaid, DirectorIndependence Planetarium1776 Educational Park DriveSan Jose, California 95133 USA+1 408-928-9604+1 408-926-9515 [email protected]

Planetarium Society of IndiaProfessor S. GopinathDirector-AstronomerDaruna,80, Kathatorn RoadAmper Muang,Ratchaburi- 70000. Thailand+66 [email protected] [email protected]

Rocky Mountain PlanetariumAssociation

Jim ManningTaylor PlanetariumMuseum of the Rockies600 W. Kagy Blvd.Bozeman, MT 59717+1 [email protected]

Russian Planetariums AssociationZinaida P. SitkovaNizhny Novgorod PlanetariumPokhvalinskii S’Yezd 5-ANizhny Novgorod, 603 600 Russia(7) 831 2 30 51 51(7) 831 2 30 51 66 fax

[email protected][email protected]

Southeastern Planetarium Associ-ation

John Hare Ash Enterprises3602 23rd Avenue WestBradenton, Florida 34205 USA(1) 941-746-3522(1) 941-750-9497 [email protected]

Southwestern Association of Plane-tariums

Donna PiercePlanetariumHighland Park Independent School

District4220 EmersonDallas, Texas 75205 USA(1) 214-780-3858(1) 214-780-3799 [email protected]

Ukranian Planetariums AssociationLydmila RybkoKiev Republican Planetarium57/3 Velyka Vasyikivska Street03150 Kiev Ukraine+380 442 27 27 81+380 442 27 37 43 [email protected]

2 Planetarian September 2004

I. P. S. Off i c e r s

I. P. S. Affiliate Repre s e n t a t i v e s

PresidentJon W. Elvert, DirectorIrene W. Pennington PlanetariumLouisiana Art & Science Museum100 South River RoadBaton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 USA(1) 225-344-5272(1) 225-214-4027 [email protected]

President ElectMartin GeorgeLaunceston PlanetariumQueen Victoria MuseumWellington StreetLaunceston, Tasmania 7250 Australia61 3 63233777

61 3 63233776 [email protected]

Past PresidentMartin RatcliffeDirector, Theaters & Media ServicesExploration Place300 N McLean Blvd Wichita, Kansas 67203 USA(1) 316-263-3373(1) 316-263-4545 [email protected]

Executive SecretaryLee Ann HennigPlanetariumThomas Jefferson High School

for Science and Technology6560 Braddock RoadAlexandria, Virginia 22312 USA(1) 703-750-8380(1) 703-750-5010 [email protected]

Treasurer and Membership ChairShawn LaatschP.O. Box 1812 Greenville, North Carolina 27835 USA(1) 252-328-6139 office(1) 252-328-6218 [email protected]

IPS Consumer Affairs/Astrology CommitteeDr. Jeanne Bishop, ChairWestlake Schools PlanetariumParkside Middle School24525 Hilliard RoadWestlake, Ohio 44145 USA(1) 440-835-6399(1) [email protected]

Armand Spitz Planetarium Education FundFinance Committee

IPS Education CommitteeApril WhittFernbank Science Center156 Heaton Park Drive NEAtlanta, Georgia 30307 USA(1) 678-875-7148(1) 678-874-7110 [email protected]

IPS History CommitteeJohn Hare, Chair, IPS HistorianAsh Enterprises3602 23rd Avenue WestBradenton, Florida 34205 USA(1) 941-746-3522(1) 941-750-9497 [email protected]

IPS Job Information Service Subcommittee(Professional Services Committee)

Steve Fentress, ChairStrasenburgh PlanetariumRochester Museum & Science Center657 East AvenueRochester, New York 14607 USA(1) 585-271-4552 ext. 409(1 )585-271-7146 [email protected]

IPS Language CommitteeMartin GeorgeLaunceston PlanetariumQueen Victoria MuseumWellington StreetLaunceston, Tasmania 7250 Australia61 3 6323377761 3 63233776 [email protected]

IPS Media Distribution CommitteeThomas Kraupe, ChairArt of Sky & Planetarium HamburgHindenburgstrasse . 1bD-22303 Hamburg Germany+49 40-5142824 303+49 40-5142824 244 [email protected]@planetarium-hamburg.dehttp://www.artofsky.com

IPS Outreach CommitteeChristine ShuplaArizona Science Center600 East Washington StreetPhoenix, Arizona 85004 USA(1) 602-716-2078(1) 602-716-2099 [email protected]

IPS Planetarium Development GroupKen Wilson, ChairEthyl Universe PlanetariumScience Museum of Virginia2500 West Broad StreetRichmond, Virginia 23220 USA(1) 804-864-1429(1) 804-864-1560 [email protected]

IPS Portable Planetarium CommitteeSusan Reynolds ButtonQuarks to Clusters8793 Horseshoe LaneChittenango, NY 13037(1) [email protected]

IPS Professional Services CommitteeMike MurrayClark Planetarium110 South 400 WestSalt Lake City, Utah 84101 USA(1) 801 456 4949(1) 801 456 4928 [email protected]

IPS Script Contest CommitteeSteve Tidey58 Prince AvenueSouthend, Essex, SS2 6NN England

United [email protected]

Strategic Planning CommitteeJohn Dickenson, ChairH.R. MacMillan PlanetariumPacific Space Centre1100 Chestnut StreetVancouver, British Columbia V6J 3J9

Canada(1) 604-738-7827 ext. 234(1) 604-736-5665 [email protected]

IPS Technology CommitteeJan Sifner, ChairPlanetarium PrahaObservatory and Planetarium of PragueKralovska obora 233CZ-170 21 Prague 7 Czech Republic+420 2 333 764 52+420 2 333 794 44 (Jan)+420 2 333 764 34 [email protected]


Produced at the Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, California; http://www.GriffithObs.org/IPSPlanetarian.html

I. P. S. Standing Committees

I. P. S. AD HOC Committees

IPS Permanent Mailing AddressInternational Planetarium Society

c/o Taylor PlanetariumMuseum of the Rockies

Montana State University600 W. Kagy Blvd.

Bozeman, Montana 59717 USA

IPS Web Sitehttp://www.ips-planetarium.org

IPS Conference CommitteeJon W. Elvert, DirectorIrene W. Pennington PlanetariumLouisiana Art & Science Museum100 South River RoadBaton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 USA(1) 225-344-5272(1) 225-214-4027 [email protected]

IPS Membership CommitteeShawn LaatschP.O. Box 1812 Greenville, North Carolina 27835 USA(1) 252-328-6139 office(1) 252-328-6218 [email protected]

IPS Elections CommitteeSteve Mitch, ChairPlanetariumBenedum Natural Science CenterOglebay ParkWheeling, West Virginia 26003 USA(1) 304-243-4034(1) 304-243-4110 [email protected]

IPS Awards CommitteeJon BellHallstrom PlanetariumIndian River Community College3209 Virginia AvenueFort Pierce, Florida 34981 USA(1) [email protected]

IPS Publications CommitteeDr. Dale W. SmithBGSU Planetarium, 104 Overman HallPhysics &Astronomy Dept.Bowling Green State UniversityBowling Green, Ohio 43403 USA(1) 419-372-8666(1) 419-372-9938 [email protected]

IPS Web CommitteeAlan GouldHolt PlanetariumLawrence Hall of ScienceUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeley, California 94720-5200 USA(1) 510-643-5082(1) 510-642-1055 [email protected]

IPS Ethics Committeevacant

IPS Finance Committee - President, Past-President, President-Elect, Treasurer,Secretary

Please notify the Editor of any changeson these two pages.

Contact the Treasurer/Membership Chairfor individual member address changes and general

circulation and billing questions.

The IPS Conference in Valencia, Spain,was a great success, and as these words appearon page 2, I can be the first to congratulatethe conference hosts and the many, m a n ypeople who made the conference a wonder-ful experience. It was a job extremely well-

done. There were vendors aplenty (one couldhave spent a full day visiting just them),more papers than a person could possibleattend, and many important and usefulworkshops and talks. Not to mention thedemonstrations and previews in the plane-tarium that ran until (I’m told) 2 a.m.!

There was much to like about the confer-ence. It ran smoothly (except for probablyunavoidable technical glitches in the dome);it was well-organized; the conference hand-book was complete and professional; therewas plenty of space; there were dozens ofstaff on hand to assist and direct; the mealswere wonderful; and on and on.

I have one complaint/suggestion and onepet peeve. The complaint is that there wastoo much to do in the four days we had to doit, and cruel choices had to be made. I sawabout half of what I would have liked tohave seen, and I reluctantly left the demosunder the dome at about midnight – thus

missing the last few hours of material. This isa consequence of the organizers’ success inattracting good people and good material.Someone who once complained that “theP l a n e t a r i a n has too much advertising”doesn’t appreciate how hard we’ve worked toenlist so many advertisers (whose supportpays for this glossy color journal!), so I amvery appreciative of the enormous amount ofwork that so many people put into the con-ference. But we needed another day! And weneeded to schedule the planetarium theaterso events could be concluded before, say, 11p.m. Perhaps showing excerpts rather thanfull productions would have made this possi-ble. Are the Australians listening?

My peeve is that, once again, as almostalways, the name badges were too small toread unless you bent down and squinted.Come on, people! The technology exists touse large type and plastic holders that don’tswivel so they face inward half the time.

You’ll see in the columns that follow thatI was not the only one to enjoy and benefitfrom the IPS conference in Valencia.


The Autumn 1979 issue was 36 pages long,which was exceptionally lengthy for that era.There’s space here to describe the articles andcolumns only briefly.

Alan Friedman, Laurie Eason, and CarySneider described in five pages the steps indeveloping “Star Games: A ParticipatoryAstronomy Exhibit” at the Lawrence Hall ofScience in Berkeley, California. The exhibitexplains how telescopes work. Formulativeevaluation allowed them to correct their ini-tial designs and end up with an exhibit thatwas more user-friendly. Good idea! Theirtechnique and the lesson of the value of test-ing is equally valid today (and note to self –the article is worth reprinting). The illustra-

tion below (figure 3 of eight total) shows onestep of the review process.

Donald Hall described the first “Planetar-ium Production Techniques Seminar” held atthe Strasenburgh Planetarian in Rochester,New York, in 1978, with 10 photographs.

Hubert Harber of West Chester State Col-lege in Pennsylvania wrote on “The Astro-nomical Techniques of the Polynesian Sea-farers.” These include noting the azimuth ofrising and setting stars and the passage over-head of zenith stars.

T. Smith of Nova University, Ft. Lauder-dale, Florida, outlined the “Criterion for aResearch Article.”

William Rush and Adolf Witt of the Uni-versity of Toledo, Ohio, brought readers upto date on “Interstellar Matter – Some Mis-conceptions.” It contains useful informationfor people presenting planetarium shows onthe Milky Way, but pure astronomy articlesseldom appear in the P l a n e t a r i a n (they areavailable many places elsewhere).

“Sky Notes” by Jack Dunn listed recordsthat contain music that is suitable for “bor-rowing” for planetarium shows (includingsome that include performance rights). Thosewere the days!

In another astronomy (as opposed to plan-etarium-related) article, John O’Keefe sum-marized his thoughts on “Asian Tektites.” Heargued for the lunar origin of tektites in anera when it was still thought that the moonhad once been part of the earth that some-

how was flung off.Dale Ferguson of the Arecibo Observatory

in Puerto Rico wondered which is “Messier’sMost Fascinating Object?” He argued why itshould be M87, the giant active galaxy at theheart of the Virgo Cluster.

George Reed of West Chester State Collegein Pennsylvania introduced “the Volkswagenof the planetariums” in his article “StarlabOffers a New Mode of Planetarium Activity.”So far 50 Starlabs had been sold, and George’sarticle promoted them to the wider planetari-um field.

I thoroughly enjoy Jim Manning’s “What’sNew” column each issue, and comparing itwith James Brown’s column from 25 yearsago always illustrates how very far we’vecome in a quarter-century. Brown’s Autumn1979 column was a short catalog of sourcesfor planetarium panoramas that he preparedto facilitate the non-commercial exchange ofvisuals between institutions. The total list ofsources consisted of Don Davis and the Fiske,Manitoba, McLaughlin, Morrison, and QueenElizabeth planetariums.

The “International News” column was farin the future, but individual reports appearedfrom the British Association of Planetariums(Terence Murtagh) and the Planetarium Asso-ciation of Canada (Paul Deans).

Herb Schwartz’s “Creative Corner” offeredhints on where to find products that areoften useful in planetariums from Spiratone,Rosco Laboratories, C & H Sales, BlackhawkFilms, etc.

“Jane’s Corner” on the inside back coverwrapped up a long and packed issue.

25 Years Ago

Editor’s Keyboard

Figure 3 from “Star Games: A Partici-patory Astronomy Exhibit.” The cap-tion reads, “Three telescope designsundergo ‘trial by visitor’ during for-mulative evaluation.”

IntroductionAt the 1988 meeting in Rich-

mond, Virginia, the Inter-national Planetarium Society(IPS) released a statement ex-plaining and opposing the sell-ing of star names by privatebusiness groups. In this state-ment I reviewed the officialmethods by which stars arenamed. Later, at the IPS Exec-utive Council Meeting in 2000,there was a positive response tothe suggestion that as continuing Chair ofthe Committee for Astronomical Accuracy, Iprepare a reference article that describes notonly how stars are named, but how a widevariety of sky objects get their names. “HowAstronomical Objects Are Named” is theresult. I hope that this very long article mayserve as a helpful “one-stop” source ofanswers for most of your astronomy nomen-clature questions.

The professional astronomy group thatmakes official decisions about names of allastronomical objects is the InternationalAstronomical Union (IAU). Sky objects withnames established by long usage usually arerecognized by this group. Major committeesof the IAU are responsible for approving sys -t e m s that name sky objects as well as forapproving new proper names for some indi-vidual objects. There are specific IAU direc-tions for naming different categories ofobjects.

Like the IPS, the IAU has declared its com-plete dissociation with the commercial prac-tice of “selling” fictitious star names, wishingto make it unequivocally clear that any hintof association with these companies, whichtake in millions of dollars annually and haveoffices in many countries, is “patently falseand unfounded.” Similarly, governmentshave noted that one cannot sell land onother planets or their satellites.

Strongly making this point, Brian Mars-den, Director of the Minor Planet Center anda former Associate Director of the PlanetarySciences division at the Harvard-Smith-sonian Center for Astrophysics, declares thatthe business of having a star named for you

with the name registered in an ‘important’book “… is a scam. Astronomers don’t recog-nize those names. The Library of Congressdoesn’t recognize those names. They’re mis-leading the public. I’ve seen a few certificatesgiving the positions of the star — I’vechecked and there wasn’t a star there. Eitherthey’re making up star positions, or they’renot interpreting the charts correctly.” (D i s -cover, February, 2000, p. 72)

Planetarian Richard Pirko remarked onDome-L, “I never attempt to make the buyerlook like a fool. My boss, however, likes totell his classes that they can achieve the sameeffect [as purchasing a star] by walking intothe back yard, pointing to a star, and saying,‘I hereby name you Aunt Betty.’ You thencomplete the ceremony by removing fromyour wallet $45 and setting it on fire.”

This article will focus on the systems usedby astronomers to give accepted names tocelestial objects and object features as well asthe historical development of names for cat-egories of objects, individual objects, andobject features that now are in use. I haveadded anecdotal information to provideadditional background about the namingprocesses and to make the topic more inter-esting. Celestial nomenclature is a broad sub-ject with lots of opportunities to travel oninteresting side roads of information, so itwill take some time and distance (pages) toexplore.

The ConstellationsThroughout the world we find different

names for constellations, begun long ago, allinteresting and helpful to understanding the

use of the sky by the societies ofthe people that developed them.However, these different systemsare beyond the scope of this arti-cle; the discussion will be limitedto the system of constellationsused currently by astronomers inall countries. As we shall see, thehistory of the official constella-tions includes contributions andinnovations of people frommany cultures and countries.

The IAU recognizes 88 constel-lations, all originating in ancient times orduring the European age of exploration andmapping. Possibly, notes Owen Gingerich,the oldest constellation is Ursa Major, its use(in the Northern Hemisphere) circling theworld from an origin somewhere in Eurasia.The idea of a Bear for the Big Dipper, some-times with surrounding stars, was used bynatives of North America, who in turnmigrated from Asia. When Europeans metthe Native Americans, members of both cul-tures were surprised to find that the othergroup used the name of “bear” for these stars.Owen Gingerich suggests that the Bear con-stellation dates back to the Ice Ages.

Archaeoastronomer E. C. Krupp recentlyreviewed and analyzed a large body of litera-ture on the early development of the con-stellations in use today. I highly recommendKrupp’s article for a balanced look at differ-ent origin ideas including the “zone of avoid-ance” theory (pinpointing latitude whereunseen stars would have centered on thesouth celestial pole at certain times in theprecessional cycle) and Alexander Gursh-tein’s ideas on the development of Zodiacconstellations in sequential “quartet” groupsbeginning in about 5600 BC.

There are convincing records and argu-ments that Mesopotamia (areas of present-day Iran, Iraq, Northeastern Turkey, andSyria) was the site of origin for many of ourconstellations. Possibly the Lion (Leo), theBull (Taurus with the Pleiades), and the Scor-pion (Scorpius) , all Zodiac figures, wereamong the earliest, appearing in the fourthmillennium BC.

In ancient Greece, about 700 BC, the epic


How Astronomical Objects Are Named

Jeanne E. BishopWestlake Schools Planetarium

24525 Hilliard RoadWestlake, Ohio 44145 U.S.A.

[email protected]

“What, I wonder, would the science of astrono-my be like, if we could not properly discrimi-nate among the stars themselves. Without theuse of unique names, all observatories, bothancient and modern, would be useful tonobody, and the books describing these thingswould seem to us to be more like enigmasrather than descriptions and explanations.”

– Johannes Hevelius, 1611-1687

poems of I l i a d and O d y s s e y, attributed toHomer, and Works and Days, attributed toHesiod, independently mention the GreatBear, Orion and the Pleiades. The asterism ofthe Pleiades was put forth as a separate con-stellation.

The astronomer Eudoxus (c . 390 BC-340BC) was the first Western writer to discussmany of the now-recognized constellationsof the Northern Hemisphere. We understandthat his presentation was given in two sepa-rate books, now lost, handbooks for use witha celestial globe showing these constella-tions. P h a e n o m e n a, a poem that Aratus ofSoli wrote in about 275 BC, shows us whatEudoxus must have described. Eudoxus andAratus identified 47 of our constellations,including “the Water” (now part of Aquar-ius). Other Greek works listing P h a e n o m e n aconstellations were summarized by Eratos-thenes (276 BC-194 BC) of Cyrene, famous forfinding the size of the Earth, in the third cen-tury BC.

Noting the times of these Greek writings,Krupp observes, “We encounter only sparseevidence for the constellations in the eighthcentury BC, but roughly 600 years later theyparade in full regalia and present themselvesas a complete set.” (Archaeoastronomy, V o l .XV, p. 45.)

Many researchers have tried to determinethe origin of the other Phaenomena c o n s t e l-lations, with wide agreement that mostcame from Mesopotamia. Studies whichincorporate the “zone of avoidance” theoryassume that the constellations were createdin one place at one time. Since each studyconcludes that P h a e n o m e n a c o n s t e l l a t i o n soriginated at a latitude/epoch (or place/time)combination that is somewhat differentfrom the others, these studies do not identifyour constellations’ roots.

Krupp says that we should not assumethat all the new constellations in P h a e n o -mena were created abruptly at the same loca-tion. Based on all available evidence, and thelack of data showing otherwise, he believes itlikely that an elaborate constellation systemwhich led to P h a e n o m e n a c o n s t e l l a t i o n sdeveloped when three things existed: amotive (reference for motions of the Moonand planets), a means (instruments and liter-acy), and an opportunity (social organiza-tion comparable to a kingship that supportstime, training, and resources for specialists).In a central situation with these features,newly-created constellations were fused toimported ones, sky figures that had beendevised in other places at other times. A like-ly candidate for the first major creator-syn-thesizers of our constellations was the Meso-potamian Sumerian culture. SubsequentMesopotamian kingship cultures may haveadded constellations with different origins

to the Sumerian constellation core. How the majority of Phaenomena constel-

lations made their way to Greece also isuncertain. The Minoans, a maritime groupwho moved between the Middle East andthe Mediterranean, may have learned theconstellations directly from Mesopotamians,used them for their navigation, and passedthem along to Egypt and Greece. Alterna-tively, Krupp thinks that it is just as plausiblefor Anatolia, especially Ionia on the westernshore of the Mediterranean and a place nearEudoxus’ home city of Cyzicus, to haveserved as main movers. Ionia was a wealthy,intellectual region, possessing excellent tradeconnections. The Minoans still may havehad a part in constellation distribution,adopting, adapting and transmitting themafter they finally reached Crete.

Ptolemy’s book was the most crucialinstrument for transmitting the Mesopo-tamian constellations to later generations.The set of figures described by Ptolemy inSyntaxis in the second century AD is thefoundation of our constellation system. Weknow Ptolemy’s work by the title A l m a g e s t(“the great book”). Syntaxis was translatedinto Arabic by Thabit ibn Qurra in the ninthcentury. The Ptolemaic constellations werekept vibrant in the Middle East while Europewas climbing out of a Dark Age. The Islamicscholar Al-Rahman Al-Sufi (903-986 AD.)identified 48 constellations in Treatise on theS t a r s , his version of the A l m a g e s t. Al-Suficombined Babylonian, Indian, and Bedouintraditions, drawing beautiful figures aroundthe stars identified by Ptolemy. For example,we see a camel by a woman in Al-Sufi’s repre-sentation of Cassiopeia. Al-Sufi’s book wasvery influential in both the Islamic area andin Christian Europe. A Latin versionappeared in 1270, and an Italian translationwas made in 1341.

New constellations were added by Euro-peans as their ships ranged to southern lati-tudes. And empty spaces in the northerncelestial sphere that had not yet receivednames, called by the Greek name of a m o r -p h o t o i, the “unformed” or “unshaped,” werefilled in. All constellations that were addedduring this post-Renaissance period are con-sidered “modern.” Many fell into disuse, butmany others were fused permanently withthose in Ptolemy’s list.

With the posthumous publication of his1602 star catalogue, Danish astronomerTycho Brahe (1546-1601) was influential inpopularizing two constellations engraved byDutchman Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594) onhis 1551 celestial globe. They were ComaBerenices (which Mercator called Cincinnis),once part of Leo, and Antinous, which was asection of Aquila. It is likely that Mercatorborrowed these figures from a globe printed

in Cologne by Caspar Vopel (1511-1561) fif-teen years before, developed in turn frommuch older ideas. Tycho promoted bothconstellations, Antinous and Coma Bere-nices, but Antinous did not last.

Between 1596 and 1603, twelve more con-stellations were added by two Dutch naviga-tors who observed in the Southern Hemi-sphere. Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser (?-1595) andFrederick de Houtman (c. 1571-1627) were in-structed by Dutch cartographer PetrusPlancius (1552-1622) to make and recordobservations while they were on southernvoyages. In an unexpected venue, a dictio-nary of Malay terms he published in 1603,Keyser added an appendix of 303 stars and 12new constellations visible from the SouthernHemisphere: Chamaeleon, Dorado, Grus,Hydrus, Indus, Musca, Pavo, Phoenix,Triangulum, Tucana, and Volans. Planciusinvented three constellations of his ownwhich are used today: Columba (from starsPtolemy had listed as surrounding CanisMajor), Monoceros, and Camelopardalis.

Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687) of Poland,who modeled his astronomy work on that ofTycho Brahe, slipped seven more constella-tions among the growing number, closingthe a m o r p h o t o i regions. In Hevelius’ 1690posthumously-published star atlas we dis-cover Canes Venatici, Lacerta, Leo Minor,Lynx, Scutum, and Vulpecula. Scutum wasintroduced as Scutum Sobieski, “shield ofSobieski.” Sobieski was King John III ofPoland (1624-1696) who fought hordes ofTurks that invaded Europe. Four constella-tions introduced by Hevelius which did notsurvive were Cerberus, Mons Marinalis,Musca, and Triangulum Minor. (Note thatMusca already was a name for a Southernconstellation.) In his Firmamentum Sobiesci -a n u m, Hevelius drew his constellation fig-ures with backs turned, as if they are lookingtoward the center of a celestial globe. Manycelestial cartographers had used this tech-nique in the golden age of the celestial atlas,beginning with Johann Bayer’s U r a n o m e t r i aof 1603, but Hevelius was the last to employit in a major star atlas.

Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (1713-1762) sailedto South Africa and established an observa-tory beneath Table Mountain at Cape Town.When Lacaille returned to France in 1754,after three years of observations, he pro-posed fourteen new constellations to theFrench Royal Academy of Science. Publishedin 1756, all of them were accepted and con-tinue to be used today: Antlia, CaelumSculptorium (Caelum), Circinus, FornaxChimiae (Fornax), Horologium, Mensa,Microscopium, Norma, Equuleus Pictoris(Pictor), Pyxis, Reticulum, Octans, AparatusSculptoris (Sculptor) , and Telescopium.Lacaille named Mensa, meaning “table,” in


honor of Cape Town’s Table Mountain, siteof his southern observatory. If Ptolemycould come forward from his time in the sec-ond century AD, no doubt he would be puz-zled by the many instrument names foundin Lacaille’s list. Lacaille introduced anotherchange which persisted, a division of ArgoNavis into the separate constellations ofCarina, Puppis, and Vela.

After Hevelius and Lacaille, many astron-omers and cartographers tried to add constel-lations. But their ideas did not last.

Before Hevelius and Lacaille, in 1627,Julius Schiller (1596-1805) had substitutedChristian and Judaic names and figures fortraditional constellations. Schiller respondedto arguments made by theologians duringthe Middle Ages that the sky was filled withpagan images. One sees Schiller’s religiousconstellations in two beautiful planispheresof Celestial Atlas (1661) by Andreas Cellarius(c . 1596-1665). Following Schiller’s lead,Cellarius replaced the zodiacal constellationswith 12 apostles and Argo Navis with Noah’sArk. Cellarius also produced planispheres ofthe traditional constellations in the sameatlas. He left the reader to choose betweenthe Judeo-Christian maps and the traditionalones. The experiment had a decisive conclu-sion: no books or maps of religious constella-tions were produced after Cellarius.

By the beginning of the twentieth centu-ry, our constellations were fairly well estab-lished in the minds of observers. In 1922 thefirst General Assembly of the IAU officiallyadopted the list of 88 constellations. Belgianastronomer Eugene Delporte (1882-1955)drew up a definitive list of constellationboundaries on behalf of the IAU. Since therehad been no consensus for boundaries beforethis time, Delporte’s book D e l i m i t a t i o nScientifique des Constellations, published in1930, formulated a rigid professional system,a system in which no further substitutionsor additions could be made. Every positionon the celestial sphere is within one of the 88constellations as presented by Delporte.Actually, in Delporte’s work, there are 89defined areas, since the constellation Serpensappears in two separate parts of the sky. Thetwo parts of the constellation Serpens, nowaccepted as a single figure, are Serpens Cauda(the serpent’s head) and Serpens Caput (theserpent’s tail.) Considering this detail, peoplespoke of 89 official constellations duringmuch of the twentieth century.

In 1930, when the constellations werecaged in this definitive manner, Ophiuchus(between Scorpius and Sagittarius) became ade facto thirteenth Zodiac constellation, orperhaps better described, a thirteenth eclip-tic constellation. Ophiuchus was never part

of the classical Zodiac. In 1959,authors of the Larousse Encyclo -pedia of Astronomy , declaredthere were 89 constellationsdivided into three zones: 13ecliptic constellations, 29 con-stellations (along with the rest ofOphiuchus) between the eclipticzone and the north celestialpole, and 47 constellation sbetween the ecliptic zone andthe south celestial pole.

To point out a constellationin the planetarium, many of usslide the arrow or laser pointerover stars to make a figure, or weindicate that lines of stars repre-sent edges of a constellation.However, in the interest of accu-racy it is advisable to let adultaudiences know that most con-stellations have official bound-aries where there is only emptyspace to the unaided eye.

Some object names are deriv-ed from constellation names,such as stars (discussed below)and clouds found within con-stellation boundaries. “Sco-Cen,”for example, is an OB associationof stars known for having manysupernovae, with boundarieswithin both constellation sScorpius and Centaurus.

The StarsThe First Dictionary of Nomenclature of

Celestial Objects, published in 1983, describesover one thousand different star naming sys-tems currently in use, mostly for faintobjects studied by professional astronomers.Some of these were sanctioned specificallyby the IAU, while others derive approval fortheir professional use from astronomical tra-dition. (“Sold stars” are not one of these pro-fessionally-recognized systems!)Proper Names

The historical development of individualstar names used today goes back to Greektimes. The works of Hesiod include Arcturusand Spica in the eighth century BC. In 275 BCAratus included six individual stars inP h a e n o m e n a : Arcturus, Capella (which hecalled Aix), Sirius, Procyon (which was anentire constellation), Spica (which he calledStachus), and Vindemiatrix (which he calledProtrygeter). Archaeoastronomer Ian Rid-path points out that although Aratus’ inclu-sion of Vindemiatrix may surprise us due toits relative faintness, apparently the ancientGreeks used it as a calendar star which mark-ed the start of the grape harvest.

In his S y n t a x i s (later, A l m a g e s t) of about150 AD, Ptolemy summarized knowledge of1028 stars, including estimates of theirbrightn ess based on observations byHipparchus three centuries earlier. Ptolemydid not identify most of these stars by Greekletters as we do today. Instead he used longGreek phrases, most describing the positionof the stars within constellations. Ptolemyadded only four new names to the onesgiven by Aratus: Altair (which he calledAetus, meaning “eagle”) Antares, Regulus(which he called Basiliscus), and Vega (whichhe called Lyra, the same name as the constel-lation).

Al-Sufi, as he copied and modified theAlmagest constellations, sometimes madedirect translations from Greek to Arabicnames, such as Fomalhaut, which means“the mouth of the southern fish.” However,Al-Sufi also applied old Arabic names tomany stars in his reissued Arabic star charts,names which frequently depicted animals orpeople.

Most proper star names are a legacy fromIslamic astronomers of the Middle Ages, theoldest system of naming stars still in usetoday. When the books prepared by Arabscholars were introduced into ChristianEuropean countries, they were translatedinto Latin. The stars kept their Arabic names.The Arabic astrolabe, an instrument whosename means “star taker” and which has craft-ed points representing specific stars, furtherhelped to spread the use of the Arabic starnames to Western culture..

See Richard Hinckley Allen’s book S t a r


Northern Constellation Delporte Constellationgrid. In 1930 the Belgian astronomer EugeneDelporte (1882-1955) was commissioned by theInternational Astronomical Union to createboundaries for all the constellations. Delportewas instructed to follow, as well as possible, thedivisions which appeared in the principal atlasesthen in use. The boundaries between constella-tions were defined by arcs of hour circles and par-allels of declination for a specific reference date,the equinox of 1875. A simple adjustment for pre-cession would then give the right ascension anddeclination of any star on any date. This mapshows the northern celestial hemisphere. Credit:Eugene Delporte, Delimitations scientifiques desconstellations, Cambridge University Press, 1930.

Names, first published in 1899 and later byDover Publications in 1963, for a wealth ofinformation about the proper names of starsthat can be of interest to planetarium audi-ences. Although Star Names is a very usefulbook, E. C. Krupp cautions us that researchsince 1899 shows that some of the informa-tion in Star Names is false, including thedescription of the origin of Hercules’ 12Labors.

Also see the widely-referenced translationby Paul Kunitzsch and Tim Smart, S h o r tGuide to Modern Star Names and Their Deriva -tions (1986). The star name Betelgeuse (inOrion) offers an interesting example of atranslation problem. Kunitzsch and Smarttranslate Betelgeuse as “hand of the centralone.” But in some other books and articleswe find “the star of the right shoulder,” “thebright red star in the r i g h t shoulder,” and“the right armpit of the giant,” all incorrectlyincluding “right” as part of the meaning ofBetelgeuse. It is helpful to be aware of incor-rect translations in sources we use for plane-tarium programs and teaching.Some Proper Names Used by NASA

Three stars received unofficial alternativenames that were used in prestigious places.The names started as a conspiratorial jokeinvolving people in two planetariums. E.C.Krupp, who wears the hat of Director of theGriffith Observatory as well as Archaeo-astronomer, explains what happened:Astronaut Virgil Grissom made arrange-ments with Tony Jenzano (?-1997), Plane-tarium Manager at the Morehead Plan-etarium, to quietly rename three stars withina list that would be used in navigatingApollo spacecraft to and from the moon.Grissom submitted a list of 37 stars they wereto learn to instructors at Morehead. The cre-ated names embedded in the list are back-wards-spelled parts of astronaut names.Regor came from Roger Chaffee (1935-1967),renaming Gamma Velorum; Dnoces camefrom Edward White II (1930-1967) for Talithaor Iota Ursae Majoris (the northern star ofthe “third leap of the gazelle”); and Navicame from Virgil Ivan Grissom (1926-1967)for Segin, the center star of the “W” asterismin Cassiopeia.

Grissom, Chaffee, and White all died inthe Apollo 1 fire during a simulated count-down on January 27, 1967,

The list containing the bogus names waspassed along from the astronauts to ClarenceCleminshaw at the Griffith Observatoryplanetarium, where training in celestial navi-gation and star identification continued.Cleminshaw accepted the list; he did notquestion the authority of astronauts. When asecond Apollo crew trained at the GriffithObservatory planetarium, the three starnames remained in use. Subsequently George

Lovi used the names in his monthly Sky andT e l e s c o p e star maps and articles. By 1977,Cleminshaw knew how the names originat-ed, and he explained their origin in his bookThe Beginner’s Guide to the Constellations. SeeKrupp’s October, 1994, “Rambling Throughthe Skies” and Fred Schaaf’s April, 2003, “StarNames New and Old,” both in Sky & Tele -scope, for more details. Also note the sectionbelow “Mars: A Few Details” for the way theApollo 1 astronauts have been honored withofficial celestial names.Bayer Designations

A second star-naming system was intro-duced by German astronomer Johann Bayer(1572-1625) in his 1603 atlas U r a n o m e t r i a.“Bayer designation” is a name applied to thissystem. Bayer used 60 beautifully-drawnconstellations to identify stars, and he desig-nated each star with a Greek letter. OftenBayer designated stars in their order of itsapparent brightness within a constellationtogether with the genitive case of the Latinconstellation name.

However, frequently Bayer used a combi-nation of brightness and positional orderwithin a constellation. For example, in Leo,the brightest star (Regulus) was Alpha Leonis,the next brightest, Beta Leonis, etc. But inGemini the brightest star (Pollux) was BetaGeminorum, and the next brightest star(Castor) was Alpha Geminorum. In UrsaMajor, Bayer used Greek letters for the BigDipper stars in the order of the Dipper pat-tern. Amateur astronomers and some plane-tarians now beginning their study of starnames think of the Bayer “brightness rule” asfixed, but as James Kaler notes, “It is massive-ly violated.”

When Bayer ran out of the 24 letters of theGreek alphabet, he used Roman lower- caseletters and then upper case letters, A to Q.Although the Roman letters no longer areused for the Northern Hemisphere, theGreek letter system has been applied to theentire sky. Alan MacRobert notes that yearsago names like Alpha Centauri, meaning“Alpha of Centaurus,” seemed very naturalto people who were familiar with Greek andLatin required courses in high schools anduniversities in the United States. Todaymany people in the US who hear Bayer des-ignations are encountering Greek and Latinfor the first time. The system may seem diffi-cult or strange. Depending on general knowl-edge of Greek and Latin in a particular coun-try, as you present star names in the plane-tarium it may be helpful to discuss somedetails of the Greek alphabet and Latin geni-tive case.

Bayer modified a system that had beenintroduced in 1540, over sixty years earlier,by Italian Alessandro Piccolomini (1508-1579). Piccolomini’s catalogue designated the

brightest stars in each of 47 constellationswith sequential low-case Roman letters, forthe first time showing fairly accurate starpositions on star charts.

Since so many planetariums use pictureprojections of the constellations, it may beinteresting to know that the Western-stylepictorial star chart began with Bayer, coin-ciding with the Renaissance art revivalthroughout Europe. Bayer’s constellationpictures of scantily-clad human figures andplump women probably reflect the art val-ues of his time. The backward-facing figuresfound in Bayer’s U r a n o m e t r i a , and in lateratlases until the time of Hevelius, must be anattempt to match mirror-reversed starsfound on the outsides of opaque celestialglobes.

The first scientific use of Bayer’s atlas wasby Johannes Kepler of Germany for his 1604-1605 notation of a supernova, “Kepler’s newstar,” in the constellation Ophiuchus (record-ed in De Stella Nova, 1606). When Kepler(1571-1630) redrew Bayer’s Ophiuchus chart,he added his new “star” (labeled “N”) as wellas positions of Mars and Jupiter at two differ-ent times. Kepler reversed Ophiuchus fromBayer’s direction, facing the figure towardthe reader instead of away.Flamsteed Numbers

A third important star naming system isFlamsteed Numbers, authored by John Flam-steed (1646-1719). Flamsteed became Eng-land’s first Astronomer Royal in 1675, theyear the Greenwich Observatory was found-ed. Like Hevelius, John Flamsteed seems tohave idolized and likened himself to TychoBrahe. Flamsteed was so meticulous that henever got around to publishing his workhimself. An unauthorized and uncorrectedversion of Flamsteed’s observations between1676 and 1705, without star charts, was pub-lished in 1712 by Edmund Halley in collu-sion with Isaac Newton. Flamsteed gatheredand burned all unsold copies of the Halleypublication, but errors in the Halley publica-tion were perpetuated. A correct illustratedatlas of Flamsteed’s work, Stellarum Inerran -tium Catalogus Britannicus, often called theBritish Catalogue, was published in 1725, fouryears after Flamsteed’s death. In this so-called“equinox 1725” system, each constellation’sstars are numbered in order of their rightascension, along with the genitive case of theLatin constellation name. Therefore 80Virginis is east of 79 Virginis and west of 81Virginis. All stars were numbered, whether ornot they had a Bayer designation. So Vega is3 Lyrae as well as Alpha Lyra. The highestFlamsteed number within a constellation is140 Tauri. Flamsteed’s simple system ofArabic numbers was similar to the systemthat had been used by Islamic astronomers.

Flamsteed’s book of constellation charts,


Atlas Coelestis based on the British Catalogue,was published with modifications by Abra-ham Sharp in 1729. On the chart of Androm-eda, for example (see front cover), one seesthe Bayer system of Greek letters. An unla-beled object can be identified at the locationof M 31, the Andromeda Galaxy.

In 1930, with the publication of the IAU-supported work of Delporte, many Flam-steed catalogue star names became truly puz-zling. Some stars which previously were incertain constellations now were in differentconstellations. For example, 49 Serpentis is inHercules and 30 Monocerotis is in Hydra.

Flamsteed numbers usually were appliedonly by those in England, although JohannBode gave Flamsteed-type numbers to starsof the Southern Hemisphere. Flamsteednumbers still are used frequently, althoughthe on ly Southern Flamsteed n umbersapplied by Bode that have survived are 30Dor and 47 Tuc.Other Star-Naming Systems

As telescopes revealed fainter and fainterstars, new systems for identity were needed.The BD system, for Bonner Durchmusterung(Bonn Survey), was begun in 1859 by Germanastronomer Friedrich W. Argelander (1799-1875) at Bonn Observatory. Stars includingtenth magnitude are included in this list. Forthe BD, Argelander and subsequent mapmak-ers divided the sky into narrow declinationbands (1o) each beginning at 0 hours rightascension. Vega’s designation in this systemis BD+38o 3238, the 3,238t h star betweendeclination +38 and +39. The first BD cov-ered the north celestial pole to -2o d e c l i n a-tion, the next, called the SBD, covered thesky to -23o declination, and the last, the CDor CoD for the Cordoba Durchmusterung,extended to the south celestial pole. A totalof 1,071,800 D u r c h m u s t e r u n g star designa-tions were made. BD names still are in use,but the magnitudes given in the BD catalogsare unreliable.

A rival to the Cordoba Durchmusterungwas the nineteenth-century Cape Photo -graphic Durchmusterung (CPD), the first majorastronomical work to be carried out photo-graphically. The CPD gives the approximatepositions and magnitudes of nearly half amillion Southern Hemisphere stars.

The Henry Draper Catalog (HD), of stellarspectra is a widely used catalog. In the earlyyears of the twentieth century U.S. astrono-mer Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941) atHarvard College Observatory listed the spec-tra of 225,300 stars in order of right ascen-sion. More were added in the Henry DraperExtension (HDE). All stars with HD or HDEdesignations have had their spectra ana-lyzed.

In 1908 another catalog was issued atHarvard: the Revised Harvard Photometry(HR), which tried to give accurate magni-

tudes for the brightest 9,110 stars (stars to afaintness of about magnitude 6.5). This listremains the basis of the now widely-usedYale Bright Star Catalogue.

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory(SAO) Star Catalog, a compilation publishedin 1966, lists very accurate positions for258,997 stars, to a faintness of about 9th mag-nitude. SAO stars are numbered by rightascension within 10 degree-wide declinationstrips. The SAO Star Catalog expanded on thesingle General Catalogue of 33,342 Stars ( G C )by Benjamin Boss, published in 1937.

The United States Naval Observatory hasthe current most dominant catalog, whichcontains over half a billion stars. The USNOCatalog (A1.0 on 10 CDs) and A2.0 on 11 CDs)is the current record holder for the world’slargest star catalog. It covers the entire sky,and it was created by scanning red and blueplates from different surveys. In its prepara-tion, objects that appeared on only one col-ored plate were eliminated, which helped toevade the problem of spurious objects.

The Hubble Space Telescope Guide StarCatalog (GSC) contains 18,819,291 objects,available on two CD-ROMs. The GSC’sbrightest objects are 9t h magnitude, sincebrighter stars cannot be used by Hubble’sguide cameras. Most of the objects are 13t h-1 4t h magnitude stars, although some 15t h

magnitude objects are included and 3.6 mil-lion of the objects are faint galaxies.

A set of catalogues based on the HipparcosSpace Astrometry Mission are the H i p p a r c o sC a t a l o g (HIP), the Hipparcos Input Catalog(HIC), and the Tycho Catalog (T). The Hippar-cos spacecraft name is derived from HIghPrecision PARallax COllecting Satellite, aname honoring the early Greek astronomerHipparchus. Large scientific teams collabo-rated with the European Space Agency (ESA)to release these catalogs in 1997. HIP includesposition measurements, magnitudes, propermotions, and uncertainties . Objects areordered by right ascension. HIC gives thedata input to Hipparcos. The Tycho Catalog((now, called T y c h o - 1) is a specialized set ofHipparcos data. A user-friendly website con-tains parts of the catalogs, and it supportsthose who have and use t he catalogs:h t t p : / / a s t r o . e s t e c . e s a . n l / H i p p a r c o s / h i p p a r-cos.html. Because, unlike earlier databasestudies, Hipparcos did not operate for severaldecades, T y c h o - 1 proper motion data is rela-tively poor. Positions based on T y c h o - 1 d a t aare excellent for times near 1991 (the mid-point of the satellite observations) and areslowly getting worse as time passes

The Astrographic Catalog (AC) c o n t a i n sdata for about 4 million stars, prepared fromplates imaged about a century ago. The A Ccontains four times as many stars as Tycho-1.The Unit ed States Naval Observatory(USNO) derived improved positions by com-

b i n i n g AC data with Tycho-1 positions in ahybrid ACT Catalog. The ACT Catalog l i s t sstar positions that are almost as precise in2004 as they were in 1991. However, theTycho-2 Catalogue, prepared in 2000 by syn-thesizing data from the AC, Tycho-1, and sev-eral other catalogs, plus employing bettercomputer processing techniques not avail-able earlier, essentially has made Tycho-1 andthe ACT catalogues obsolete.

The Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)part of NASA’s Origins program recordeddata for over 470 million point sources andover 1.5 million extended sources from 1997to 2001. Although the 2MASS catalog sourcesare much less utilized than the United StatesNaval Observatory sources, PrincipalInvestigator Michael Skrutskie enthuses thatthis data volume is “several hundred timeslarger than that contained in the humangenome. Astronomers will become cosmicgeneticists, searching out patterns in thesesky maps to decode the structure and originof the Milky Way and the surrounding near-by Universe.”

There are eight types of 2MASS catalogs,including the All-Sky Point Source Catalog(“2MASS) and the All-Sky Extended SourceCatalog (“2MASX”). Object nomenclatureuses these catalog acronyms with numbersrepresenting very precise right ascension anddeclination.

Some other important professional nam-ing systems are found in the following cata-logs: the Positions and Proper Motions Catalog(PPM), and the Zodiacal Catalog (ZC) byRobertson.

Astronomers maintain web-based databases of sky objects. The largest and mostused astronomical data base, containing starsas well as other Galactic objects outside ofthe solar system (and extragalactic objectssince 1983), is SIMBAD, or “Set of Identifi-cations, Measurements, and Bibliography forAstronomical Data.” SIMBAD contains 1.54million objects with 4.4 million identifyingnames, cross-indexed to over 2200 cata-logues, based on 2.5 million bibliographicalreferences.

The CDS Service that maintains SIMBADat Strasbourg University and Harvard Uni-versity peruses over 90 journals for Galacticobjects. Astronomers at recognized institu-tions in the United States, Europe, and Japancan obtain free passwords to get internetaccess to SIMBAD. Applications for a pass-word may be sent by E-mail to CDS Servicelocated at the Strasbourg, France Astro-nomical Data Center: [email protected]. A User’s Guide for SIMBAD may beretrieved from: ftp://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/pub/simbad/guide13.ps.gz.

SIMBAD is just one the CDS acronymstaken from stories of The Thousand and OneNights. The stories were written in the gold-


en age of Islamic astronomy. The son (Al-Ma’mun) of the sultan (Haran Al-Rashid) ofthe Thousand Nights stories commissionedtranslation of Ptolemy’s work into Arabicand also founded observatories in Baghdadand Damascus. CDS’s ALADIN is an interac-tive digital computer atlas. The VizieR is asearch program for a large catalog library.And the Astronomer’s Bazaar allows access toover one thousand astronomy catalogueson-line.

As a result of so many naming systemsand catalogues, a bright or interesting starmay have quite a few names. The multiplenames are found on astronomy software pro-grams. For example, in the Voyager II IDynamic Sky Simulator program (CarinaSoftware), clicking on a mapped star causesat least 8 different star names pop up. ForBetelgeuse one reads: AlphaOri, 58 Ori, HR2061, SAO 113271, HD 39801, BD M+7 1005,and Hipp 27989.

The idea of one st ar (and other skyobjects) having different names may seemodd to both students and adults in our plane-tarium audiences. Brian Marsden says, “Theexistence of multiple names is very impor-tant from the point of view that it providesredundancy, thereby making it clear that, bysupplying more than one designation as acheck, we know which object we are talkingabout.”

The existence of multiple names is a factof astronomy life, and we have a responsibil-ity to explain the situation to those whoattend our star programs. An understandingof multiple names can help people whomake use of astronomy software programslike Voyager and on-line astronomy sources.Double and Multiple Stars

Since so many stars are doubles or multi-ples, a system for naming the components isnecessary. In a naked-eye binary, two starsclose together, whether a physical binary ornot, the western one is labeled 1. For exam-ple, Zubenelgenubi, Alpha Librae, is a widedouble star . The western star is namedAlpha-1 Librae and the eastern star is namedAlpha-2 Librae, even though Alpha-2 Libraeis much brighter than Alpha-1 Librae.

For stars in a telescopic binary or multiplesystem, the brighter or the first-discoveredstar (they usually go together) is called A, andthe fainter, B (and then D, E, etc.) The Romanletters follow a Bayer, Flamsteed, or catalogdesignation. Thus the white dwarf compan-ion of Sirius is named correctly with all ofthe following: Sirius B, Alpha Canis Majoris B,and HD 48915B. Perhaps one of the most dif-ficult areas of astronomical nomenclature tounderstand, astronomers in different disci-plines or specialties involving study of bina-ry stars have different ways of referring tothem. Stars expert James Kaler explains that

the term “primary” means different things inthe different disciplines. Variable Stars

In 1862 Friedrich Argelander began the BDsystem for variable stars that is in use today.Since capital Roman letter Bayer designa-tions go only as far as Q in the alphabet forfaint stars, Argelander proposed using the let-ters R to Z for naming the variable stars ineach constellation. When some constella-tions were found to contain more than ninevariable stars, the n aming system wasexpanded to two-letter designations, andthen to numbers. Now the designation con-sists of one or two letters and the genitivecase of the constellation or a “V” with anumber and the genitive (or its abbrevia-tion) of the constellation name. U Sagittarii,RR Lyrae, and V1500 Cygni all are variablestars.

The first variable found in a constellationreceives the letter R, the next S, and so on upto Z. The tenth variable is RR, then RS up toRZ. The nineteenth is SS, the ST, up to SZ.The pattern continues to YY, YZ, and ZZ andthen AA, AB to AZ, BB to BZ up to QQ to QZ.The letter J is omitted to avoid confusionwith the letter I. Thus there are 334 possibledesignations for each constellation with thisscheme, and beyond that the V with a num-ber is used. If a star with a Bayer designation

is found to be a variable, it is not given a newname, so Beta Persei (Algol), and OmicronCeti (Mira) do not have letters or V numbers.Variable stars are classified in groups namedfor one typical representative, such as “Mirastars or “RR Lyrae stars.” “Cepheid” is thename usually applied to stars like DeltaCephei. Sagittarius has the largest number ofvariable stars, with a star recently getting thedesignation of V4333 Sgr.

Extrasolar PlanetsWith well over 100 extrasolar planets now

known, some might think that the IAUwould by now have invented a proper-names system for these planets. GeoffreyMarcy, who has participated in the discov-ery of a majority of the extrasolar planets,would like to see a system which bestowsnames on the extrasolar planets “represent-ing the elusive but crucial element of humansocial coexistence on Earth. These would bewords, in different languages, for peace, fruit-ful coexistence, compromise, empathy, andpersonal and global insight. The new planetsshould belong to everyone — to all nationsand cultures.”

James Kaler says that it is beneficial tokeep the system simple because even nowthere are too many of these objects for all tohave proper names. And certainly more ofthese objects will be found.

Alan Boss, who heads the IAU section toname such planets, explains that at this timethere is no agreement for proper namesamong those astronomers working in theextrasolar planets field. The star (primary) ofa system now gets the letter A after the starname and its planets get b, c, d, etc. The starswith extrasolar planets sometimes havetongue-twisting designations that must bementioned over and over again in discus-sions and papers. One host star which has aHenry Draper classification is HD114762.William Cochran of the University of Texasfound this unwieldy enough that he namedthe host “George.” And Alfred Vidal Madjarof France refers to the host star HD209445Aas “Osiris”.

Hélène Dickel, Past Chair of the IAUWorking Group on Designations, points outthat extrasolar planet identification andstudy is still a very young field. Astronomersare too busy discovering new planets tospend much time on their names. A systemalready exists for naming multiple objects,found in the Washington Multiplicity Catalog(http://ad.usno.navy.mil/wds/new wds.html). Among many new multiple objectsthat most surely will be discovered with thenext series of space telescopes, probablythere will be a lot of extrasolar planets.Dickel thinks it likely that astronomers willdesignate these extrasolar planets, alongwith the other binary and multiple objects,


Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse, also AlphaOrionis in Bayer designation, isshown here as photographed by theHubble Space Telescope. Any timefrom next year to hundreds of thou-sands of years from now Betelgeuseis expected to become a supernovaand then a neutron star or blackhole. Betelgeuse is a semiregular vari-able star, changing from between+0.2 to 1.2 magnitude. Betelgeuse’svariability was first noticed by JohnHerschel in 1836. The name Betel-geuse is translated authoritativelyfrom Arabic as “hand of the centralone,” with no reference to the giant’sright side. Although Betelgeuse usu-ally is pronounced “Beteljuz” or“Beetle-joos,” Harvard astronomerDonald H. Menzel (1901-1976) toldfriends that he liked to say“Betelgerz” … for euphony.” Credit: A.Dupree (CfA), R. Gilliland (STScI),NASA

with the namin g system found in theWashington Multiplicity Catalog.

Novae and SupernovaeA newly-discovered nova is named with

the year in which it occurs written after thegenitive case of the constellation. Later thenova receives a variable star designation. SoNova Cygni 1975 is also V1500 Cygni.

If there is more than one nova per year ina given constellation, the novae initially aredistinguished as No. 1, No. 2, etc. This systemalso is applied to novae in the large Magel-lanic Cloud (LMC) and Small MagellanicCloud (SMC), but not to other galaxies.

In other galaxies novae and other vari-ables receive only “V” numbers.

A supernova is named with the year itoccurs and a capital Roman letter for itsorder in a list of supernovae recorded withinthat year. If the star had one or more catalogdesignations before it reached supernovastage, the catalog names are retained andnow said to apply to the “precursor” stars.For example, supernova 1987A (SN 1987A)was identified with the precursor star namedSanduleak -69o 202. The precursor was the202nd object within the 69th degree south ofthe celestial equator in The Deep Prism Surveyof the Large Magellanic Cloud, published atCleveland, Ohio’s Warner and Swasey Obser-

vatory by Nicholas Sanduleak (1933–1990).SN 1987A was the first supernova of 1987. Ifall 26 of the capital Roman letters have beenused for supernovae before reaching the endof a particular year, then double lower caseletters are applied. SN 2005aa would be thename of the 27t h supernova of 2005. Namesare applied in a sequence of aa through az,then ba through bz, and so on. The nominalreason for switching to lower-case doubleletters was that it allowed designations tosort correctly by computer. In reality, saysBrian Marsden, there is a historical reason:lower-case single letters used to be used forcomet designations (which changed in 1994),while upper-case double letters are used forprovisional names of minor planets (aster-oids) and TNOs or KBOs, both or which arediscussed later in this article. Since there areonly about three supernovae in a givengalaxy in a thousand years, this naming sys-tem’s number of possibilities is sufficient forsupernovae that are seen in all galaxies.

The very energetic objects called gammaray bursts (GRBs) have been matched conclu-sively with supernova explosions if they lastfrom 2 seconds to several minutes (longduration). Normally a gamma ray burst getsthe name of GRB followed by numbers ofyear, month, and day of discovery, such asGRB 021211, named for the GRB found onDecember 11, 2002. If more than one gammaray burst is discovered on the same day, acapital Roman letter of A, B, etc. is added tothe designation. The reason for using thedate instead of right ascension and declina-tion is that frequently GRBs have very poor-ly established initial coordinates. Most of thetime the positions of pulsars (neutron starswhich are one kind of supernova remnant)are well known. Therefore a naming systemincluding right ascension and declination isused. See http://cdswebiu-strasbf.fr/cgi-bin/Dic.

Strictly speaking, category designationsare not names. However, it is useful to knowthat supernovae are classified into two maincategories, I and II, with Ia and normal-typeII being the most common. Frequently thesupernova category is given with the discov-ery or research information. Type Ia (SN Ia)supernovae have been observed in all typesof galaxies, while types II (SN II), Ib (SN Ib),and IIc (SN IIc) have been observed only inspirals, barred spirals and irregular galaxies.The type of star which becomes a SN Ia isthought to detonate (supersonic burningfront) or deflagrate (subsonic burning front)an accreting white dwarf in a binary system.The star becoming a normal SN II is thoughtto be caused by core collapse of a very mas-sive star. Spectra and light curves are used todistinguish supernovae types. Supernova1987A was a II pec (II peculiar) core-collapsesupernova.

Type Ia supernovae have a very impor-tant role as standard candles in determiningdistances to remote galaxies. Within the pastfive years, observations of Type Ia super-novae have shown that the Hubble constantis not really constant, that its value increasesat very large distances. Along with additionaldata, the upward turning curve of recession-al velocity of distant galaxies containingType Ia supernovae has pushed astronomersto invoke the exotic concept of abundantdark energy. Topics of dark energy and typeIa supernovae go together in a planetariumprogram about cosmology.

Coordinate System Epoch andTime are Important

Early star charts had no coordinate axes.Bayer introduced grid lines in his 1603 Urano -m e t r i a, so that each star could be distin-guished to within a few tenths of a degree.Flamsteed’s posthumous British Cataloguecontained two innovations that have beeninvaluable to astronomers: right ascensionand declination of stars and an adjustmentfor precession.

To communicate positions of very faintobjects seen with today’s powerful telescopesrequires very precise coordinates. Astrono-mers study objects at many different wave-lengths, so they need a precise system formatching observations.

Precession movement, the slow westwardmigration of the vernal equinox positionalong the Zodiac, is a very important consid-eration in fixing accurate coordinates. Hip-parchus of Nicaea and Rhodes (190 BC-120BC) made a highly accurate calculation ofthe rate of precession, 46” per year. That isvery close to the modern value of 50.26” peryear, and it is much better than the value of36” per year found by Ptolemy nearly 300years later. A number of studies indicate thatprobably precession was noticed earlier byancient Egyptians. Hipparchus may haveemployed Babylonian data to find thelength of the tropical year (time betweensuccessive arrivals of the sun at the vernalequinox), checking it against data he gath-ered himself as well as data of earlier Greekscientists. Applying his determined value ofthe tropical year, Hipparchus deduced theprecessional rate.

As precession constantly changes the posi-tion of a star or other object with respect tothe vernal equinox or any reference position,the exact time or e p o c h on which the rightascension and declination (or other coordi-nates) are based must be identified. For anydate the coordinates can be adjusted to astandard date, the epoch. The most commonstandard date for coordinates given in thetwentieth century was 1950.0 and the inter-val of time from that epoch was based on thesun reaching longitude 285o. This is the


Tycho Supernova Remnant (TychoSNR) in X-Ray. Here we “see” in X-rayradiation the nebula of a shockwavegenerated as the material from thesupernova expands into the sur-rounding gas and dus t. In 1572Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe sawthe next-to-last-observed supernovain the Milky Way and was so im-pressed that he devoted much of theremainder of his life to astronomy.Using IAU nomenclature for super-novae, this object is SNR 1572, since noother supernovae were noted in 1572.A SIMBAD “Query Result” shows thatSNR 1572 has a large total of 42 differ-ent identifiers, mostly due to differ-ent catalog listings. A frequently-used alternative name for SNR 1572 isG 120.1+1.4, 3C 10, an entry in David A.Green’s Catalogue of Galactic Super-nova Remnants. Credit: S.L. Snowden,ROSAT, MPE, NASA.

Besselian 1950 or B1950 system of coordi-nates.

There is a difference between “Equinox”and “Epoch”. Many older star catalogues use“Epoch” to be the date from which propermotions should be applied to the tabulatedpositions, which may be different from the“Equinox” (in terms of precession) to whichthe mean positions are referred.

In 1984, as precessional mot ion hadenlarged the difference between an object’sB1950 coordinates and its coordinates basedon a current-date position of the VernalEquinox, the International AstronomicalUnion (IAU) changed both the epoch andtime standard for coordinates. The standardepoch became 2000.0, and the interval oftime for transformation from that epochwas changed to the Julian century of 36525days. This system is the J2000 system ofcoordinates.

It is important for astronomers to notewhether they are using B1950 or J2000 coor-dinates. The amount of difference can beabout 3 minutes of right ascension and aquarter of a degree of declination.

The Nine PlanetsMost planetarians are aware that the plan-

et names we use are all those of Roman gods,with many of the attributes of Greek gods.But a review, with further details, should begiven in any inclusive treatment of astro-nomical names.

Mercury is the Roman god of commerce,travel, and thieving and is the counterpart ofthe Greek messenger to the gods, Hermes.

Venus is the Roman name representingAphrodite, the Greek goddess of love andbeauty. Mars was a Roman god of agriculturebefore its association with the Greek god ofwar, Ares. Jupiter (Jove) is the patron god ofthe Roman state, counterpart to the chiefOlympian god Zeus, son of Cronos. Saturn,like Mars, was a Roman agricultural goduntil it became identified with the GreekCronos, son of Uranus and Gaia.

When Uranus was discovered by WilliamHerschel (1738-1822) on March 13, 1781, heproposed the name of “the Georgius Sidus”(George) in honor England’s King George III(1738-1820, sometimes called the “insaneking”, a condition resulting from a geneticdisease or “the king who lost America”.Others called the new planet “Herschel.” Butit was “Uranus,” the name suggested byJohann Bode (1747-1826) because Uranuswould fit with the other planet classicalnames, which eventually stuck. By about1850 all astronomers had accepted the nameUranus. We realize now that Uranus wasseen in 1690, by John Flamsteed, becauseFlamsteed recorded it on a star chart as 34Tau.

The story of Neptune’s discovery, which

twists through details of previous sightings,work by people in both Europe and GreatBritain based on theoretical calculations, andchance events that possibly robbed someastronomers (and an amateur astronomer) offame, is well worth planetarium programtime. After Neptune was discovered and itsorbit had been worked out reasonably well,old records showed that earlier astronomershad seen it. Galileo was just one of those whosaw Neptune, recording the planet at leastthree times, first on December 28, 1612, andthen on January 27 and January 28, 1613.Galileo even noted that Neptune, which hecalled a star, had moved away from anotherpoint, now known to be a real star. JosephJerome de Lalande (1732-1807) of France re-corded Neptune on May 10 and 12 in 1795.John Herschel (1792-1871) even saw it, on July14, 1830, recording it as a star. John Lamont(or Johann von Lamont, 1805-1879), who wasborn in Scotland but who lived most of hislife in Munich, recorded Neptune at leastthree times — October 25, 1845, September 7,1846, and September 11, 1846 — the last datejust 12 days before its identification as a plan-et.

The name Neptune, Roman god of the seaand counterpart to the Greek Poseidon, wasapplied to the eighth planet soon after it wasfound. Conventionally, credit for Neptune’sdiscovery is given equally to Urbain JeanJoseph Leverrier (1811-1877) of France andJohn Couch Adams (1819-1892) of GreatBritain. Both Leverrier and Adams calculatedthe probable location of a new planet, basedon the deviation of Uranus from its predict-ed orbit applying Newton’s gravitationallaw. The first sighting, based on Leverrier’spredictions, was on September 23, 1846, byJohann Gottfried Galle (1812-1910) andHeinrich Ludwig d’Arrest (1822-1875) at theBerlin Observatory. See http://www-groups. d c s . s t a n d . a c . u k / ~ h i s t o r y / H i s t T o p i c s /Neptune (1996).

As an interesting sideline to Neptune’s dis-covery, it is difficult to determine if Adamsand Leverrier deserve equal credit. Some doc-uments pertaining to Adams’ work werefound in Chile in 1999, and they have beenstudied by historian Nicholas Kollerstrom ofUniversity College London. Kollerstrombelieves that British claims have been exag-gerated. Traditionally Britain’s AstronomerRoyal George Airy (1801-1892) has been criti-cized for being slow to respond to Adams’request to look for the planet, in fact beingmentioned by biographers as the most con-troversial Astronomer Royal. Adams gaveAiry information on the position of the“new planet” on October 21, 1845 and it wasJuly 9, 1845, before Airy asked James Challis(1803-1882), Director of the CambridgeObservatory, to begin a search for it. Challis

reluctantly looked and saw the planet onboth August 4 and August 12, 1845; but thenhe did not take the necessary time to com-pare all the points seen at those times withpoints he had recorded on July 30. Challiswould have found Neptune if he had madeall of the tedious comparisons. From analysisof the Chile documents, Kollerstrom con-cludes that Challis did not have a good indi-cation of the planet’s location. The recordsshow that Adams changed his mind repeat-edly and that his predictions varied over 20degrees of sky. But better maps would surelyhave helped Challis. Brian Marsden notesthat “Galle and d’Arrest had the singularadvantage of the availability of the newBerlin chart of the appropriate region.”

Pluto (with now-questionable status as aplanet) was discovered on February 18, 1930,by Clyde W. Tombaugh (1906-1997) using ablink comparator at the Lowell Observatoryin Flagstaff, Arizona. The discovery of theninth planet was the culmination of a thirdsearch funded by Percival Lowell. Tom-baugh found Pluto (magnitude of approxi-mately 13.5) in a position calculated fromsupposed perturbations by Uranus andNeptune. Now we understand that the gravi-tational effects are far too small to makesuch perturbations. Thus Tombaugh’s dis-covery was a fortunate accident. Tom-baugh’s story of Pluto’s discovery, recordedin a number of places, is very engaging andworthy of treatment in planetarium pro-grams. On October 22, 1988, at the annualGreat Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA)conference at Bowling Green, Ohio, Tom-baugh delivered a spell-binding presentationof “The Discovery of the Planet Pluto”. Hedistributed photographs and wrote personalautographs on them for conference partici-pants.

The name Pluto, the Roman god of theunderworld and the counterpart of theGreek god Hades, was first suggested byVenetia Burney, an eleven-year-old girl fromOxford, England. Pluto is so far from the sunthat it seems to be in the solar system’sunderworld. Appropriately, the first two ini-tials of Pluto are those of the benefactor ofsearches for it, Percival Lowell. The follow-ing names also were suggested for the ninthplanet: Atlas, Aretemis, Tantalus, Chronus,Perseus, Vulcan, and Minerva, althoughMinerva was already a minor planet.

People have speculated on the possibilityof a major “Planet X” beyond the orbit ofNeptune. (Pluto also was given the title of“Planet X” before its discovery.) WhenVoyager 2 flew near Neptune, the discrepan-cies between data showing existence ofanother planet and data showing no planetvanished. There is no planet the size of Earthor larger in the region beyond but near to


Neptune. If an Earth-sized object someday isfound far beyond Neptune, the IAU mayhave a chance to name a new planet.

Planetary NomenclatureHow Names are Approved

Generally, when images first are obtainedfor the surface of a planet or a satellite, anaming scheme is chosen. A few of the majorfeatures are given names, usually by themembers of the appropriate IAU task group.When later higher resolution images andmaps are available, features that investiga-tors want named are supplied with names.Suggestions to the task group may comefrom any source, and a file is kept of appro-priate names that may be used. Names suc-cessfully reviewed by a task group are sub-mitted to larger panel, the Working Groupfor Planetary System Nomenclature(WGPSN). After review by the WGPSN, suc-cessful names are considered as approvedprovisionally and they can be used on mapsand in publications as long as the provisionalstatus is stated clearly. The provisionalnames then are presented for adoption to theIAU General Assembly, which meets everythree years. A name is not considered to beofficial until then. Transactions of the IAUlist approved names. If you wish to make asuggestion, you can submit it to the U.S.Geological Survey, Branch of Astrogeology,Attention Jennifer Blue, Room 409, 2255 N.Gemini Drive, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001 or E-mail [email protected]. Suggestions are for-warded to the appropriate IAU task groups. Some General IAU Rules

Rules for all names adopted by the IAU fol-low certain general rules and conventions,which have been reexamined and amendedthrough the years. Planetary Nomenclaturerules are as follows:

1. The name should be simple, clear, andunambiguous.

2. The number of names chosen for eachbody should be kept to a minimum, andtheir placement governed by therequirements of the scientific commu-nity.

3. Duplication of the same name on two ormore bodies should be avoided.

4. Individual names chosen for each bodyshould be expressed in the language oforigin.

5. Where possible, themes established inearly solar system nomenclature shouldbe used and expanded upon.

6. Solar system nomenclature should beinternational in its choice of names.Recommendations submitted to theIAU national committees will be consid-ered, but final selection of the names isthe responsibility of the IAU. TheWGPSN strongly supports equitableselection of names from different ethnic

groups/countries; however, a higherpercentage of names from the countryplanning a landing is allowed on land-ing site maps.

7. No names having political, military, orreligious significance may be used,except for names of political figuresprior to the 19th century.

8. Commemoration of persons on plane-tary bodies should not be a goal in itselfbut should be reserved for persons ofhigh and enduring international stand-ing. Persons being so honored musthave been deceased for at least threeyears.

9. When more than one spelling a name isextant, the spelling preferred by the per-son, or used in an authoritative refer-ence, should be used. Diacritical marksare a necessary part of a name and willbe used.

10. Ring and ring-gap nomenclature andnames for newly discovered satellitesare developed in joint deliberationbetween WGPSN and IAU Commission20. Names will not be assigned to satel-lites until their orbital elements are rea-sonably well known or definite featureshave been identified on them.

Naming ConventionsIn addition to the above rules, the WGPSN

and its task committees of the IAU followthese naming conventions

1. Names for all planetary features (usuallyin Latin) include a descriptor term, withthe exception of two types. The first ex-ception is craters and the second excep-tion is some features on Io (Jupiter satel-lite) and Triton (Neptune satellite),because they are recognized as beingtransitory.

2. The naming convention for a featuretype does not normally depend on size.Exceptions to this rule are channels(v a l l e s ) on Mars and craters on theMoon, Mars, and Venus. Naming con-ventions for craters and channels dodepend on size. Regio was used as a clas-sification feature on early maps of theMoon and Mercury, drawn from tele-scope observations, to describe vaguealbedo features. R e g i o now is used todelineate a broad geographic region.

3. Named features on bodies so small thatcoordinates have not yet been deter-mined are identified on drawings of thebody that are included in the IAUTransactions volume of the year whenthe names were adopted. Satellite ringsand gaps are named for scientists whohave studied these features. A system forplanetary atmospheric features at pre-sent is informal. A formal system will bechosen in the future.

4. Boundaries of many large features (t e r -rae, regiones, planitiae, and plana) are nottopographically or geomorphically dis-tinct. The coordinates of these featuresare identified from an arbitrarily chosencenter point. Boundaries and subse-quent coordinates may be determinedmore accurately in the future from geo-chemical and geophysical data.

Organization of the Planetary NomenclatureGazetteer

A system of naming planet surface fea-tures is needed so that a particular feature onthe surface of a planet or a satellite can belocated, described, and discussed.

One can obtain detailed informationabout all names of topographic and albedofeatures of planets and satellites, as well assome planetary ring and ring-gap systemsbeginning at http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov. The document is under continuousdevelopment. The edition of the Gazetteer ofPlanetary Nomenclature described at thisweb address at the time this article was pre-pared con tains all bodies named andapproved by the IAU from 1919 through1997. The appendices available at this addressare very informative.

Forty-seven descriptor terms or featuretypes are listed in the Planetary Nomencla-ture Gazetteer. Appendix 4 gives 172 specificsources of planetary names. Appendix 5 con-tains definitions of all Latin-named featuretypes with their plurals: astrum, catena, cavus,chaos, chasma, colles, corona, crater, dorsum,eruptive center, facula, farrum, flexus, fluctus,fossa, labes, labyrinthus, lacus, landing site,large ringed feature, lenticula, linea, macula,mare, mensa, mons, oceanus, palus, patera,planitiae, planum, plume, promontorium, regio,reticulum, rima, rupes, scopulus, sinus, sulc

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