Classifying and Describing Stars

Abstract

The first thing that is necessary to begin describing stars is to have a means by which we can locate stars in the sky so that they can be referred to by others. In other words, we need to develop a celestial coordinate system. Generally, when developing a coordinate system, we look for landmarks to which can anchor the coordinate system. We begin by describing some bulk motions of the more prominent objects in the sky. From there we describe the subtle motions of the stars and the coordinate system used to locate them. We conclude with a system for describing the brightness of stars.