Abstract
The problem of what a constellation is—and on whose authority—proved to be a vexing question in historical astronomy for reasons that transcended mere aesthetics. The pursuit of certain topics in astronomy research, and in particular those whose studies were bolstered by the emerging technology of the photographic process, required a consistent nomenclature framed in part by being able to distinguish the membership of stars in one constellation or another. Before those memberships can be established the boundaries separating them must be demarcated, and that implies astronomers agree on a fixed canon of constellations to which none would be added or subtracted. But the problem at the end of the nineteenth century was that no such general agreement among astronomers existed. Its solution has much to do with the phenomenon of “lost” constellations in the first place.
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Notes
- 1.
This type of nomenclature extended to other phenomena. As Eugène Delporte wrote in 1930: “The precise demarcation of the constellations is of utmost importance for a great deal of astronomical work such as the systematic observation of meteors, the study and denomination of variables, the observation of novae, etc.”
- 2.
Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 25, p. 417 (1931).
- 3.
Stroobant (1868–1936) was one of the foremost Belgian astronomers of his generation. He was a Professor of Astronomy at University of Brussels from 1896 to his death, directed the Royal Observatory in Brussels from 1925–1936, and presided over the Royal Belgian Academy’s “Classe des Sciences” in 1931–1932. (The Observatory, Vol. 59, pp. 349–352, 1936.)
- 4.
Kopff (1882–1960) was the Director of the Institute for Astronomical Calculation at Humboldt University in Berlin. He discovered a number of asteroids and comets, and is commemorated by the names of both the lunar crater Kopff and the asteroid (1631) Kopff.
- 5.
Flammarion (1877–1962) was the wife of Camille Flammarion (1842–1925) and served as the General Secretary of the Société Astronomique de France. She worked at a private observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge, France, from which she published observations of planets, asteroids and variable stars. The crater Renaudot on Mars is named in her honor, as is the asteroid (355) Gabriella.
- 6.
Schlesinger (1871–1943) was an American astronomer among the first to rely primarily on the use of photographic plates rather than traditional visual observations to collect data for research. He is best known for compiling and publishing the Yale Bright Star Catalogue.
- 7.
The AAS report “Pronouncing Astronomical Names” included suggested pronunciations of both constellations and individual stars. It was first published in the June 1943 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine. The pronunciations suggested by AAS are problematic for a variety of reasons summarized by S&T’s Tony Flanders in the article “Constellation Names and Abbreviations” (http://www.skyandtelescope.com/letsgo/helpdesk/Constellation_Names.html).
- 8.
“Les bases de d’epart, suivant les propositions de M. Delporte, furent les suivantes: Réaliser une deélimitation scientifique des constellations de l’hémisphére boréal, les limites étant mathématiquement définies par rapport à un équinoxe déterminé, ces limites s’écartant au minimum des tracés non définis figurant sur les atlas moderne, de facçon à éviter le plus possible les changements d’étoiles de constellations à constellations, et avec la condition expresse de conserver aux étoiles variables cataloguées le nom que ces étoiles avaient reçu.” (p. 4).
- 9.
Bigourdan (1851–1932) was a member of the French Institute and is best known for measuring precise positions of 6380 nebulae and his participation in an effort to redetermine (with greater precision) the longitude difference between London and Paris at the turn of the twentieth century.
- 10.
Duncan (1882–1967) was director of the Whiting Observatory in Wellesley, Massachusetts. His chief contribution to astronomy was his photographic demonstration of expansion in the Crab Nebula in the 1930s.
- 11.
Knobel (1841–1930), FRAS, was a London businessman and amateur astronomer for whom Knobel Crater is named on Mars.
- 12.
Proctor (1862–1957), FRAS, was an Irish-American popularizer of astronomy for whom the lunar crater Proctor was named.
- 13.
Young (1886–1977) was Professor of Astronomy at the University of Toronto, and is remembered for his studies of stellar radial velocities and guidance in the design and construction of the 1.88-m telescope at the David Dunlap Observatory, Ontario, Canada.
- 14.
Bengt Georg Daniel Strömgren (1908–1987), Dutch astronomer.
- 15.
“Union Astronomique Internationale,” the French name for the IAU.
- 16.
Keenan (1908–2000) was an American spectroscopist who, with William Wilson Morgan (1906–1994) and Edith Kellman (1911–2007), developed the MKK stellar spectral classification system.
- 17.
Astrophysical Journal 75, 68 (1932).
- 18.
Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick John Marrian Stratton (1881–1960), OBE, FRS, was a decorated officer of the British Army and Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge from 1928 to 1947.
- 19.
Jean Bosler (1878–1973) was a French astronomer and director of Marseille Observatory from 1923 to 1948.
- 20.
Clarence Augustus Chant (1865–1956) was a Canadian astronomer and physicist considered by many as the “father of Canadian astronomy.”
- 21.
Baron Jacob Evert “Jaap” de Vos van Steenwijk (1889–1978) was a Dutch astronomer who hailed from a prominent political family and served as both mayor of Haarlem and his native Zwolle.
- 22.
Willard James Fisher (1867–1934), an American astronomer and Research Associate at Harvard College Observatory, was an authority on meteors.
- 23.
L. Grabowski was a Polish astronomer at the observatory at Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine).
- 24.
Guido Horn d’Arturo (1879–1967) was an Italian observational astronomer who designed and built the first segmented-mirror telescope in 1935.
- 25.
Friedrich Wilhelm Hans Ludendorff (1873–1941) was a German astronomer and astrophysicist, the younger brother of General Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (1865–1937), chief manager of the German war effort in the First World War. From 1921 to his retirement in 1938 the younger Ludendorff was Director of the Astrophysical Observatory of Potsdam.
- 26.
Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957) was an American astronomer best known for developing the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram with the Danish chemist and astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung (1873–1967).
- 27.
Bečvář (1901–1965) is best known for his work compiling star charts, in particular the Atlas Coeli Skalnate Pleso (1951) better known simply as the “ Skalnate Pleso” Atlas.
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Barentine, J.C. (2016). The Contemporary Sky Emerges. In: The Lost Constellations. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22795-5_2
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