{{short description|Map of the night sky}} {{Redirect-several|Star map|Star chart}} [[File:Planisphæri cœleste.jpg|thumb|A celestial map by the Dutch cartographer [[Frederik de Wit]], 1670]] [[File:Planispherium Caeleste.jpg|thumb|Constellation map 1845]] A '''star chart''' is a [[celestial cartography|celestial map]] of the [[night sky]] with [[astronomical object]]s laid out on a grid system. They are used to identify and locate [[constellation]]s, [[star]]s, [[nebula]]e, [[galaxy|galaxies]], and [[planet]]s.Kunwar Krishan Rampal, Mapping and Compilation, Concept · 1993, page 96 They have been used for human [[celestial navigation|navigation]] since time immemorial.The Handbook Of The SAS And Elite Forces. How The Professionals Fight And Win. Edited by Jon E. Lewis. p.373-Tactics And Techniques, Personal Skills And Techniques. Robinson Publishing Ltd 1997. ISBN 1-85487-675-9 Note that a star chart differs from an [[astronomical catalog]], which is a listing or tabulation of astronomical objects for a particular purpose. Tools using a star chart include the [[astrolabe]] and [[planisphere]]. ==History== [[File:Atlas (Farnese Globe).jpg|thumb|[[Farnese Atlas]] at the [[Naples National Archaeological Museum|Museo Archeologico Nazionale]], Naples]] ===Prehistory=== A variety of archaeological sites and artifacts found are thought to indicate ancient made star charts. The oldest known star chart may be a carved ivory [[Mammoth]] tusk, drawn by early people from Asia who moved into Europe, that was discovered in Germany in 1979. This artifact is 32,500 years old and has a carving that resembles the constellation [[Orion (constellation)|Orion]], although it could not be confirmed and could also be a pregnancy chart.{{cite news | first=David | last=Whitehouse | date=January 21, 2003 | title='Oldest star chart' found | publisher=[[BBC]] | url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2679675.stm | access-date=2009-09-29 }} German researcher Dr Michael Rappenglueck, of [[LMU Munich]], has suggested that drawing on the wall of the [[Lascaux]] caves in France could be a graphical representation of the [[Pleiades]] [[open cluster]] of stars. This is dated from 33,000 to 10,000 years ago. He also suggested a panel in the same caves depicting a charging bison, a man with a bird's head and the head of a bird on top of a piece of wood, together may depict the [[Summer Triangle]], which at the time was a [[circumpolar stars|circumpolar formation]].{{cite news | first=Jack | last=Lucentini | title=Dr. Michael A. Rappenglueck sees maps of the night sky, and images of shamanistic ritual teeming with cosmological meaning | publisher=space. | url=http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planetearth/cave_paintings_000810.html | access-date=2009-09-29 }} Rappenglueck also discovered a drawing of the [[Northern Crown]] constellation in the [[cave of El Castillo]] (North of Spain), made in the same period as the Lascaux chart.{{cite web|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/871930.stm|title=BBC News - SCI/TECH - Ice Age star map discovered|website=news.bbc.co.uk|access-date=13 April 2018}} Another star chart panel, created more than 21,000 years ago, was found in the [[:fr:Grotte de la Tête du Lion|La Tête du Lion cave]] ([[french language|fr]]). The bovine in this panel may represent the constellation [[Taurus (constellation)|Taurus]], with a pattern representing the Pleiades just above it.{{cite arXiv | last=Sparavigna | first=Amelia | title=The Pleiades: the celestial herd of ancient timekeepers | date=October 2008 | eprint=0810.1592v1 | class=physics.hist-ph }} A star chart drawn 5000 years ago by the [[Indian people|Indian]]s in Kashmir, which also depict a supernova for the first time in human history.{{Cite web| title=Oldest sky-chart with Supernova record | url=http://www.tifr.res.in/~archaeo/papers/Prehistoric%20astronomy/Oldest%20Supernova%20record%20in%20Kashmir.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127033428/http://www.tifr.res.in:80/~archaeo/papers/Prehistoric%20astronomy/Oldest%20Supernova%20record%20in%20Kashmir.pdf | archive-date=2018-01-27}} The [[Nebra sky disk]], a 30 cm wide bronze disk dated to 1600 BC, bears gold symbols generally interpreted as a sun or full moon, a lunar crescent, several stars including the Pleiades cluster and possibly the Milky Way. ===Antiquity=== The oldest accurately dated star chart appeared in ancient [[Egyptian astronomy]] in 1534 BC.{{cite journal | last=von Spaeth | first=Ove | title=Dating the Oldest Egyptian Star Map | journal=Centaurus | date=2000 | volume=42 | issue=3 | url=http://www.moses-egypt.net/star-map/senmut1-mapdate_en.asp | access-date=2007-10-21 | doi=10.1034/j.1600-0498.2000.420301.x|bibcode= 2000Cent...42..159V | pages=159–179| url-access=subscription}} The [[Babylonian star catalogues|earliest known star catalogues]] were compiled by the ancient [[Babylonian astronomy|Babylonian astronomers]] of [[Mesopotamia]] in the late 2nd millennium BC, during the [[Kassites|Kassite Period]] (''ca.'' 1531–1155 BC).{{cite book | last=North | first=John | date=1995 | title=The Norton History of Astronomy and Cosmology | url=https://archive.org/details/nortonhistoryofa0000nort | url-access=registration | location=New York and London | pages=[https://archive.org/details/nortonhistoryofa0000nort/page/30 30–31] | publisher=W.W. Norton & Company | isbn=0-393-03656-1}} The oldest records of [[Chinese astronomy]] date to the [[Warring States period]] (476–221 BC), but the earliest preserved Chinese star catalogues of astronomers [[Shi Shen]] and [[Gan De]] are found in the 2nd-century BC ''[[Shiji]]'' by the [[Western Han]] historian [[Sima Qian]].{{cite book |last1=Sun|first1=X. |last2=Kistemaker |first2=J. |date=1997 |title=The Chinese Sky During the Han: Constellating Stars and Society |publisher=[[Koninklijke Brill]] |isbn=90-04-10737-1 |pages=21–22 }} The [[Chinese star maps|oldest Chinese graphical representation of the night sky]] is a [[lacquerware]] box from the 5th-century BC [[Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng]], although this depiction shows the positions of the [[Chinese constellations]] by name and does not show individual stars.{{cite book |last1=Sun|first1=X. |last2=Kistemaker |first2=J. |date=1997 |title=The Chinese Sky During the Han: Constellating Stars and Society |publisher=[[Koninklijke Brill]] |isbn=90-04-10737-1 |pages=18–19 }} The [[Farnese Atlas]] is a 2nd-century AD [[Roman sculpture|Roman copy]] of a [[Hellenistic era]] [[Greek statue]] depicting the [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]] [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]] holding the [[celestial sphere]] on his shoulder. It is the oldest surviving depiction of the [[ancient Greek]] constellations, and includes grid circles that provide coordinate positions. Because of [[precession]], the positions of the constellations slowly change over time. By comparing the positions of the 41 constellations against the grid circles, an accurate determination can be made of the [[Epoch (astronomy)|epoch]] when the original observations were performed. Based upon this information, the constellations were catalogued at {{nowrap|125 ± 55 BC}}. This evidence indicates that the [[star catalogue]] of the 2nd-century BC Greek astronomer [[Hipparchus]] was used.{{cite journal | last=Schaefer | first=Bradley E. | title=The epoch of the constellations on the Farnese Atlas and their origin in Hipparchus's lost catalogue | journal=Journal for the History of Astronomy | volume=36/2 | issue=123 | pages=167–196 | date=May 2005 | doi=10.1177/002182860503600202 | bibcode=2005JHA....36..167S | s2cid=15431718 | url=https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5815&context=physics_astronomy_pubs }} A [[Roman Egypt|Roman era]] example of a graphical representation of the night sky is the [[Ptolemaic Egypt]]ian [[Dendera zodiac]], dating from 50 BC. This is a bas relief sculpting on a ceiling at the [[Dendera Temple complex]]. It is a [[planisphere]] depicting the [[zodiac]] in graphical representations. However, individual stars are not plotted.{{cite journal | last=Evans | first=James | title=The Material Culture of Greek Astronomy | journal=Journal for the History of Astronomy | volume=30 | pages=237–307, 289–290 |date=August 1999 | issue=3 | doi=10.1177/002182869903000305 | bibcode=1999JHA....30..237E | s2cid=120800329 }} ===Medieval=== The oldest surviving manuscript star chart was the [[Dunhuang Star Chart]], dated to the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907) and discovered in the [[Mogao Caves]] of [[Dunhuang]] in [[Gansu]], [[Western China]] along the [[Silk Road]]. This is a scroll 210 cm in length and 24.4 cm wide showing the sky between [[declination]]s 40° south to 40° north in twelve panels, plus a thirteenth panel showing the northern circumpolar sky. A total of 1,345 stars are drawn, grouped into 257 [[Asterism (astronomy)|asterisms]]. The date of this chart is uncertain, but is estimated as 705–10 AD.{{cite book | author1=Whitfield, Susan | author-link1=Susan Whitfield | author2=Sims-Williams, Ursula | title=The Silk Road: trade, travel, war and faith | url=https://archive.org/details/aurelsteinonsilk0000whit | url-access=registration | publisher=Serindia Publications, Inc. | pages=[https://archive.org/details/aurelsteinonsilk0000whit/page/81 81–86] | date=2004 | isbn=1-932476-13-X }}{{cite web | first=Jean-Marc | last=Bonnet-Bidaud | date=2009-06-27 | title=The Oldest Extand Star Chart | publisher=[[Institut de recherche sur les lois fondamentales de l'Univers]] | url=http://irfu.cea.fr/Sap/Phocea/Vie_des_labos/Ast/ast.php?t=actu&id_ast=2615 | access-date=2009-09-30 | archive-date=2017-12-01 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201040803/http://irfu.cea.fr/Sap/Phocea/Vie_des_labos/Ast/ast.php?t=actu&id_ast=2615 | url-status=dead }} [[File:Su Song Star Map 2.JPG|thumb|Star chart of the [[map projection|south polar projection]] for Chinese astronomer [[Su Song]]'s (1020–1101) [[celestial globe]].]] During the [[Song dynasty]] (960–1279), the Chinese astronomer [[Su Song]] wrote a book titled ''Xin Yixiang Fa Yao'' (New Design for the Armillary Clock) containing five maps of 1,464 stars. This has been dated to 1092. In 1193, the astronomer [[Huang Shang]] prepared a planisphere along with explanatory text. It was engraved in stone in 1247, and this chart still exists in the Wen Miao temple in [[Suzhou]].{{cite journal | author=Bonnet-Bidaud |author2=Jean-Marc |author3=Praderie, Françoise |author4=Whitfield, Susan |date=March 2009 | title=The Dunhuang Chinese sky: A comprehensive study of the oldest known star atlas | journal=Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage | volume=12 | issue=1 | pages=39–59 |doi=10.3724/SP.J.1440-2807.2009.01.04 | bibcode=2009JAHH...12...39B | arxiv=0906.3034 |s2cid=55911862 }} In [[Muslim astronomy]], the first star chart to be drawn accurately was most likely the illustrations produced by the Persian astronomer [[Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi]] in his 964 work titled ''[[Book of Fixed Stars]]''. This book was an update of parts VII.5 and VIII.1 of the 2nd century [[Almagest]] star catalogue by [[Ptolemy]]. The work of al-Sufi contained illustrations of the constellations and portrayed the brighter stars as dots. The original book did not survive, but a copy from about 1009 is preserved at the [[Oxford University]]. Perhaps the oldest European star map was a parchment manuscript titled ''De Composicione Spere Solide''. It was most likely produced in [[Vienna]], [[Austria]] in 1440 and consisted of a two-part map depicting the constellations of the northern celestial hemisphere and the [[ecliptic]]. This may have served as a prototype for the oldest European printed star chart, a 1515 set of woodcut portraits produced by [[Albrecht Dürer]] in [[Nuremberg]], [[Germany]].{{cite book | author=Harley, John Brian| author2=Woodward, David | title=The History of cartography | volume=2 | edition=2nd | publisher=Oxford University Press US | pages=60–61 | date=1987 | isbn=0-226-31635-1 }} ===Early modern=== [[File:Scutum Sobiescianum - Prodromus astronomiae 1690 (5590349).jpg|thumb|right|Hevelius – ''Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia'' 1690]] During the European [[Age of Discovery]], expeditions to the southern hemisphere began to result in the addition of new constellations. These most likely came from the records of two Dutch sailors, [[Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser]] and [[Frederick de Houtman]], who in 1595 traveled together to the [[Dutch East Indies]]. Their compilations resulted in the 1601 globe of [[Jodocus Hondius]], who added 12 new southern constellations. Several other such maps were produced, including [[Johann Bayer]]'s ''[[Uranometria]]'' in 1603.{{cite book | first=J. B. | last=Hearnshaw | date=1996 | title=The measurement of starlight: two centuries of astronomical photometry | url=https://archive.org/details/measurementofsta0000hear | url-access=registration | pages=[https://archive.org/details/measurementofsta0000hear/page/9 9–10] | publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] | isbn=0-521-40393-6 }} The latter was the first atlas to chart both celestial hemispheres and it introduced the [[Bayer designation]]s for identifying the brightest stars using the Greek alphabet. The ''Uranometria'' contained 48 maps of Ptolemaic constellations, a plate of the southern constellations and two plates showing the entire northern and southern hemispheres in stereographic polar projection.{{cite journal | last=Swerdlow | first=N. M. |date=August 1986 | title=A Star Catalogue Used by Johannes Bayer | journal=Journal for the History of Astronomy | volume=17 | issue=50 | pages=189–197 | bibcode=1986JHA....17..189S | doi=10.1177/002182868601700304 | s2cid=118829690 }} Polish astronomer [[Johannes Hevelius]] published his Firmamentum Sobiescianum star atlas posthumously in 1690. It contained 56 large, double page star maps and improved the accuracy in the position of the southern stars. He introduced 11 more constellations, including [[Scutum (constellation)|Scutum]], [[Lacerta]], and [[Canes Venatici]]. ===Modern=== In 1824 [[Sidney Hall]] produced a set of star charts called [[Urania's Mirror]]. They are illustrations based on [[Alexander Jamieson]]'s ''A Celestial Atlas'', but the addition of holes punched in them allowed them to be held up to a light to see a depiction of the constellation's stars. ==See also== *[[88 modern constellations by area]] *[[Astrology]] *[[Cheonsang Yeolchabunyajido]] *[[Ephemeris]] *[[Lists of stars by constellation]] *[[Magnitude (astronomy)]] *[[Star cartography]] *[[Timeline of astronomical maps, catalogs, and surveys]] ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== *[http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/astronomy/arny_3e_update/constellation_quiz/assets/constel_tutmod.html An online guide to using a star chart] *[http://idp.bl.uk/database/oo_loader.a4d?pm=Or.8210/S.3326 The world's earliest manuscript Star Chart] from Dunhuang on the Silk Road ===Star charts=== {{Commons category|Star charts|lcfirst=yes}} *[https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0Bw9DD8Hgvs_HMDUzOGQ4MTktYTVhYi00YzhhLTg1NWYtZTYxNzM4NGRjZGU5&hl=en_GB Sky Chart] – Free Northern Sky Chart Cutout. *[https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0Bw9DD8Hgvs_HNDgyYmNlNzAtMGE0MC00NGY5LWE2MjQtZTAzYWUxYzQxZWU0&hl=en_GB Planispherium] – Free Northern Sky Chart Cutout in Latin *[http://www.midnightkite.com/starcharts.html SFA Star Charts] – Free star charts *[http://www.geody.com/star_charts.php Geody Star Charts] – Free (CC-by-sa) printer friendly star charts for several latitudes and times of the year *{{Deprecated archive|url=https://archive.today/20121204180007/http://www.mydob.co.uk/community_star.php|title=An online star chart|sec=el}} *[http://astroclub.tau.ac.il/skymaps/monthly/ Monthly sky maps for every location on Earth] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070913163917/http://astroclub.tau.ac.il/skymaps/monthly/ |date=2007-09-13 }} *[http://www.skymaps.com/ The Evening Sky Map] – Free monthly star charts and calendar for northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere, and equatorial sky watchers. *[http://www.skymaponline.net/ Sky Map Online] – Free interactive star chart (showing over 1.2 million stars up to magnitude 12) *[http://www.stellarmap.com/ Stellarmap.com] – Online map of the stars (requires compatible browser such as Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Safari or IE9). {{Portal bar|Astronomy|Stars|Spaceflight|Outer space}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Star Chart}} [[Category:Navigation]] [[Category:Types of map]] [[Category:Astronomical catalogues|*]] [[Category:Astronomical catalogues of stars|*]] [[Category:Star atlases|*]] [[Category:Constellations|+]] [[Category:Star maps|*]] [[Category:Celestial cartography]]