77-567: Sagitta is a dim but distinctive constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for 'arrow', not to be confused with the significantly larger constellation Sagittarius 'the archer'. It was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy , and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union . Although it dates to antiquity, Sagitta has no star brighter than 3rd magnitude and has
154-425: A celestial coordinate system lies in one of the modern constellations. Some astronomical naming systems include the constellation where a given celestial object is found to convey its approximate location in the sky. The Flamsteed designation of a star, for example, consists of a number and the genitive form of the constellation's name. Other star patterns or groups called asterisms are not constellations under
231-434: A planetary nebula . FG Sagittae is a "born again" star, a highly luminous star around 4,000 light-years distant from Earth. It reignited fusion of a helium shell shortly before becoming a white dwarf, and has expanded first to a blue supergiant and then to a K-class supergiant in less than 100 years. It is surrounded by a faint (visual magnitude 23) planetary nebula, Henize 1–5, that formed when FG Sagittae first left
308-508: A blue hypergiant . Infrared bands of ionised buckminsterfullerene molecules have also been found in its spectrum. WR 124 is a Wolf–Rayet star moving at great speed surrounded by a nebula of ejected gas. U Sagittae is an eclipsing binary that varies between magnitudes 6.6 and 9.2 over 3.4 days, making it a suitable target for enthusiasts with small telescopes. There are two component stars—a blue-white star of spectral type B8 V and an ageing star that has cooled and expanded into
385-549: A blue-white B9.5V main sequence star that is 2.9 times as massive as the Sun. The two orbit each other every ten years. Zeta Sagittae is a triple star system, approximately 326 light-years from Earth. The primary and secondary are A-type stars. In his Uranometria , Bayer depicted Alpha, Beta , and Epsilon Sagittae as the fins of the arrow. Also known as Sham, Alpha is a yellow bright giant star of spectral class G1 II with an apparent magnitude of 4.38, which lies at
462-454: A distance of 382 ± 8 light-years from Earth. Four times as massive as the Sun, it has swollen and brightened to 21 times the Sun's radius and 340 times its luminosity . Also of magnitude 4.38, Beta is a G-type giant located 420 ± 10 light-years distant from Earth. Estimated to be around 129 million years old, it is 4.33 times as massive as the Sun, and has expanded to roughly 27 times its radius. Epsilon Sagittae
539-439: A giant star. The smaller star remained in orbit inside the larger, whose rotation speed increased greatly, resulting in it flinging its outer layers off into space, forming a ring with knots of bright gas formed from clumps of stellar material. It was discovered in 2005 and is around 2 light-years wide. It has a size of 0.35 ′ . Both nebulae are around 15,000 light-years from Earth. Constellation Four views of
616-452: A list of 88 constellations with three-letter abbreviations for them. However, these constellations did not have clear borders between them. In 1928, the IAU formally accepted the 88 modern constellations, with contiguous boundaries along vertical and horizontal lines of right ascension and declination developed by Eugene Delporte that, together, cover the entire celestial sphere; this list
693-421: A long tradition of observing celestial phenomena. Nonspecific Chinese star names , later categorized in the twenty-eight mansions , have been found on oracle bones from Anyang , dating back to the middle Shang dynasty . These constellations are some of the most important observations of Chinese sky, attested from the 5th century BC. Parallels to the earliest Babylonian (Sumerian) star catalogues suggest that
770-400: A period of 5.45 days and a distance of 0.06 AU from its star, it has an estimated surface temperature of 1,520 ± 60 K . 15 Sagittae is a solar analog —a star similar to the Sun, with 1.08 ± 0.04 times its mass, 1.115 ± 0.021 times its radius and 1.338 ± 0.03 times its luminosity. It has an apparent magnitude of 5.80. It has an L4 brown dwarf substellar companion that
847-557: A small telescope. At magnitude 6.5, the brighter is a yellow-white main sequence star of spectral type F3 V, located 146.1 ± 0.2 light-years from Earth. The 8.8-magnitude fainter companion is a main sequence star of spectral type G5 V. A 7.4-magnitude orange giant of spectral type K2 III is also visible 91 ″ from the binary pair, located 842 ± 9 light-years away. Variable stars are popular targets for amateur astronomers, their observations providing valuable contributions to understanding star behaviour. R Sagittae
SECTION 10
#1732783210813924-520: A surface temperature of 2,576 K . Located near 18 Sagittae is V Sagittae , the prototype of the V Sagittae variables , cataclysmic variables that are also super soft X-ray sources . It is expected to become a luminous red nova when the two stars merge around the year 2083, and briefly become the most luminous star in the Milky Way and one of the brightest stars in Earth's sky. WZ Sagittae
1001-430: A yellow subgiant of spectral type G4 III-IV. They orbit each other close enough that the cooler subgiant has filled its Roche lobe and is passing material to the hotter star, and hence it is a semidetached binary system. The system is 900 ± 10 light-years distant. Near U Sagittae is X Sagittae , a semiregular variable ranging between magnitudes 7.9 and 8.4 over 196 days. A carbon star , X Sagittae has
1078-587: Is Messier 71 , a very loose globular cluster mistaken for some time for a dense open cluster . At a distance of about 13,000 light-years from Earth, it was first discovered by the French astronomer Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in the year 1745 or 1746. The loose globular cluster has a mass of around 53,000 M ☉ and a luminosity of approximately 19,000 L ☉ . There are two notable planetary nebulae in Sagitta: NGC 6886
1155-518: Is a cataclysmic variable —a binary star system composed of a white dwarf accreting mass of a donor star that is expected to go nova and briefly become the most luminous star in the Milky Way and one of the brightest stars in our sky around the year 2083. Two star systems in Sagitta are known to have Jupiter-like planets, while a third— 15 Sagittae —has a brown dwarf companion. The ancient Greeks called Sagitta Oistos 'the arrow', and it
1232-415: Is a double star whose component stars can be seen in a small telescope. With an apparent magnitude of 5.77, the main star is a 331-million-year-old yellow giant of spectral type G8 III around 3.09 times as massive as the Sun, that has swollen to 18.37 +0.65 −0.88 its radius. It is 580 ± 10 light-years distant. The visual companion of magnitude 8.35 is 87.4 arcseconds distant, but
1309-416: Is a massive neutron star that is ablating its brown dwarf-sized companion which causes the pulsar's radio signals to attenuate as they pass through the outflowing material. HD 231701 is a yellow-white main sequence star hotter and larger than the Sun, with a Jupiter -like planet that was discovered in 2007 by the radial velocity technique . The planet orbits at a distance of 0.57 AU from
1386-412: Is a member of the rare RV Tauri variable class of star. It ranges in magnitude from 8.2 to 10.4. It is around 8,100 light-years distant. It has a radius 61.2 +12.4 −9.9 times that of the Sun, and is 2,329 +744 −638 as luminous, yet most likely is less massive than the Sun. An aging star, it has moved on from the asymptotic giant branch of stellar evolution and is on its way to becoming
1463-496: Is an unrelated blue supergiant around 7,000 light-years distant from Earth. Eta Sagittae is an orange giant of spectral class K2 III with a magnitude of 5.09. Located 155.9 ± 0.9 light-years from Earth, it has a 61.1% chance of being a member of the Hyades – Pleiades stream of stars that share a common motion through space . Theta Sagittae is a double star system, with components 12 arcseconds apart visible in
1540-441: Is another cataclysmic variable, composed of a white dwarf that has about 85% the mass of the Sun, and low-mass star companion that has been calculated to be a brown dwarf of spectral class L2 that is only 8% as massive as the Sun. Normally a faint object dimmer than magnitude 15, it flared up in 1913, 1946 and 1978 to be visible in binoculars. The black widow pulsar (B1957+20) is the second millisecond pulsar ever discovered. It
1617-602: Is around the same size as Jupiter but 69 times as massive with a surface temperature of between 1,510 and 1,850 K , taking around 73.3 years to complete an orbit around the star. The system is estimated to be 2.5 ± 1.8 billion years old. The band of the Milky Way and the Great Rift within it pass though Sagitta, with Alpha, Beta and Epsilon Sagittae marking the Rift's border. Located between Beta and Gamma Sagittae
SECTION 20
#17327832108131694-424: Is composed of a hot central post-AGB star that has 55% of the Sun's mass yet 2,700 ± 850 times its luminosity, with a surface temperature of 142,000 K , and surrounding nebula estimated to have been expanding for between 1,280 and 1,600 years, The nebula was discovered by Ralph Copeland in 1884. The Necklace Nebula —originally a close binary, one component of which swallowed the other as it expanded to become
1771-441: Is most likely on the red-giant branch of its evolutionary lifespan, having exhausted its core hydrogen and now burning it in a surrounding shell. Delta Sagittae is the second-brightest star in the constellation and is a binary. Delta and Zeta depicted the spike according to Bayer. The Delta Sagittae system is composed of a red supergiant of spectral type M2 II that has 3.9 times the Sun's mass and 152 times its radius and
1848-645: Is the Suzhou Astronomical Chart , which was prepared with carvings of stars on the planisphere of the Chinese sky on a stone plate; it is done accurately based on observations, and it shows the supernova of the year of 1054 in Taurus. Influenced by European astronomy during the late Ming dynasty , charts depicted more stars but retained the traditional constellations. Newly observed stars were incorporated as supplementary to old constellations in
1925-566: The Cyclopes . The Romans named it Sagitta. In Arabic, it became al-sahm 'arrow', though this name became Sham and was transferred to Alpha Sagittae only. The Greek name has also been mistranslated as [ὁ istos] Error: {{Lang}}: Non-latn text/Latn script subtag mismatch ( help ) 'the loom' and thus in Arabic al-nawl . It was also called al-'anaza 'pike/javelin'. The four brightest stars make up an arrow-shaped asterism located due north of
2002-573: The Inca civilization identified various dark areas or dark nebulae in the Milky Way as animals and associated their appearance with the seasonal rains. Australian Aboriginal astronomy also describes dark cloud constellations, the most famous being the "emu in the sky" whose head is formed by the Coalsack , a dark nebula, instead of the stars. Footnotes Citations Delphinus (constellation) Too Many Requests If you report this error to
2079-616: The KJV , but ‘Ayish "the bier" actually corresponding to Ursa Major. The term Mazzaroth מַזָּרוֹת , translated as a garland of crowns , is a hapax legomenon in Job 38:32, and it might refer to the zodiacal constellations. There is only limited information on ancient Greek constellations, with some fragmentary evidence being found in the Works and Days of the Greek poet Hesiod , who mentioned
2156-675: The Zodiac of Dendera ; it remains unclear when this occurred, but most were placed during the Roman period between 2nd to 4th centuries AD. The oldest known depiction of the zodiac showing all the now familiar constellations, along with some original Egyptian constellations, decans , and planets . Ptolemy's Almagest remained the standard definition of constellations in the medieval period both in Europe and in Islamic astronomy . Ancient China had
2233-412: The declination coordinates are between 16.08° and 21.64°. Celestial cartographer Johann Bayer gave Bayer designations to eight stars, labelling them Alpha to Theta. English astronomer John Flamsteed added the letters x, mistaken as Chi (χ), y and z to 13, 14, and 15 Sagittae in his Catalogus Britannicus . All three were dropped by later astronomers John Bevis and Francis Baily . Ptolemy saw
2310-434: The genitive form of the name to come up with a letter to include ('e') that was not in the name of the constellation Sagittarius. The official constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of twelve segments ( illustrated in infobox ). In the equatorial coordinate system , the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between 18 57.2 and 20 20.5 , while
2387-592: The horizon when viewed from a particular latitude on Earth is termed circumpolar . From the North Pole or South Pole , all constellations south or north of the celestial equator are circumpolar . Depending on the definition, equatorial constellations may include those that lie between declinations 45° north and 45° south, or those that pass through the declination range of the ecliptic (or zodiac ) ranging between 23.5° north and 23.5° south . Stars in constellations can appear near each other in
Sagitta - Misplaced Pages Continue
2464-583: The zodiac (straddling the ecliptic , which the Sun , Moon , and planets all traverse). The origins of the zodiac remain historically uncertain; its astrological divisions became prominent c. 400 BC in Babylonian or Chaldean astronomy. Constellations appear in Western culture via Greece and are mentioned in the works of Hesiod , Eudoxus and Aratus . The traditional 48 constellations, consisting of
2541-458: The "heavenly bodies". Greek astronomy essentially adopted the older Babylonian system in the Hellenistic era , first introduced to Greece by Eudoxus of Cnidus in the 4th century BC. The original work of Eudoxus is lost, but it survives as a versification by Aratus , dating to the 3rd century BC. The most complete existing works dealing with the mythical origins of the constellations are by
2618-520: The 14th century. The Ancient Greek word for constellation is ἄστρον ( astron ). These terms historically referred to any recognisable pattern of stars whose appearance was associated with mythological characters or creatures, earthbound animals, or objects. Over time, among European astronomers, the constellations became clearly defined and widely recognised. In the 20th century, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) recognized 88 constellations . A constellation or star that never sets below
2695-529: The 17,000-year-old cave paintings in Lascaux , southern France, depict star constellations such as Taurus, Orion's Belt, and the Pleiades. However, this view is not generally accepted among scientists. Inscribed stones and clay writing tablets from Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq) dating to 3000 BC provide the earliest generally accepted evidence for humankind's identification of constellations. It seems that
2772-503: The 88 IAU-recognized constellations in this region first appeared on celestial globes developed in the late 16th century by Petrus Plancius , based mainly on observations of the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman . These became widely known through Johann Bayer 's star atlas Uranometria of 1603. Fourteen more were created in 1763 by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille , who also split
2849-742: The Hellenistic writer termed pseudo-Eratosthenes and an early Roman writer styled pseudo- Hyginus . The basis of Western astronomy as taught during Late Antiquity and until the Early Modern period is the Almagest by Ptolemy , written in the 2nd century. In the Ptolemaic Kingdom , native Egyptian tradition of anthropomorphic figures represented the planets, stars, and various constellations. Some of these were combined with Greek and Babylonian astronomical systems culminating in
2926-504: The IAU as well as those by cultures throughout history are imagined figures and shapes derived from the patterns of stars in the observable sky. Many officially recognized constellations are based on the imaginations of ancient, Near Eastern and Mediterranean mythologies. Some of these stories seem to relate to the appearance of the constellations, e.g. the assassination of Orion by Scorpius, their constellations appearing at opposite times of year. Constellation positions change throughout
3003-572: The Navigator in c. 500 BC. The history of southern constellations is not straightforward. Different groupings and different names were proposed by various observers, some reflecting national traditions or designed to promote various sponsors. Southern constellations were important from the 14th to 16th centuries, when sailors used the stars for celestial navigation . Italian explorers who recorded new southern constellations include Andrea Corsali , Antonio Pigafetta , and Amerigo Vespucci . Many of
3080-637: The adjacent Stymphalian birds (which feature in Hercules' sixth labour ) who had claws, beaks, and wings of iron, and who lived on human flesh in the marshes of Arcadia —denoted in the sky by the constellations Aquila the Eagle, Cygnus 'the Swan' , and Lyra 'the Vulture' —and still lying between them, whence the title Herculea . Greek scholar Eratosthenes claimed it as the arrow with which Apollo exterminated
3157-647: The ancient Chinese system did not arise independently. Three schools of classical Chinese astronomy in the Han period are attributed to astronomers of the earlier Warring States period . The constellations of the three schools were conflated into a single system by Chen Zhuo , an astronomer of the 3rd century ( Three Kingdoms period ). Chen Zhuo's work has been lost, but information on his system of constellations survives in Tang period records, notably by Qutan Xida . The oldest extant Chinese star chart dates to that period and
Sagitta - Misplaced Pages Continue
3234-409: The ancient constellation Argo Navis into three; these new figures appeared in his star catalogue, published in 1756. Several modern proposals have not survived. The French astronomers Pierre Lemonnier and Joseph Lalande , for example, proposed constellations that were once popular but have since been dropped. The northern constellation Quadrans Muralis survived into the 19th century (when its name
3311-466: The asymptotic giant branch. S Sagittae is a classical Cepheid that varies from magnitude 5.24 to 6.04 every 8.38 days. It is a yellow-white supergiant that pulsates between spectral types F6 Ib and G5 Ib. Around 6 or 7 times as massive and 3,500 times as luminous as the Sun, it is located around 5,100 light-years from Earth. HD 183143 is a remote highly luminous star around 7,900 light-years away, that has been classified as
3388-485: The bright star Altair . Covering 79.9 square degrees and hence 0.194% of the sky, Sagitta ranks 86th of the 88 modern constellations by area. Only Equuleus and Crux are smaller. Sagitta is most readily observed from the late spring to early autumn to northern hemisphere observers, with midnight culmination occurring on 17 July. Its position in the Northern Celestial Hemisphere means that
3465-733: The bulk of the Mesopotamian constellations were created within a relatively short interval from around 1300 to 1000 BC. Mesopotamian constellations appeared later in many of the classical Greek constellations. The oldest Babylonian catalogues of stars and constellations date back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age , most notably the Three Stars Each texts and the MUL.APIN , an expanded and revised version based on more accurate observation from around 1000 BC. However,
3542-655: The celestial equator), and southern constellations Puppis , Vela , Carina , Crux , Centaurus , Triangulum Australe , and Ara . Polaris , being the North Star, is the approximate center of the northern celestial hemisphere. It is part of Ursa Minor , constituting the end of the Little Dipper's handle. From latitudes of around 35° north, in January, Ursa Major (containing the Big Dipper ) appears to
3619-491: The constellation Orion : A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellations were likely defined in prehistory . People used them to relate stories of their beliefs, experiences, creation , and mythology . Different cultures and countries invented their own constellations, some of which lasted into
3696-405: The constellation's brightest star Gamma Sagittae as marking the arrow's head, while Bayer saw Gamma, Eta, and Theta as depicting the arrow's shaft. Gamma Sagittae is a red giant of spectral type M0 III, and magnitude 3.47. It lies at a distance of 258 ± 4 light-years from Earth. With around 90% of the Sun's mass, it has a radius 54 times that of the Sun and is 575 times as bright. It
3773-661: The daytime and lower at night, while in winter the reverse is true, for both hemispheres. Due to the Solar System 's 60° tilt, the galactic plane of the Milky Way is inclined 60° from the ecliptic, between Taurus and Gemini (north) and Scorpius and Sagittarius (south and near which the Galactic Center can be found). The galaxy appears to pass through Aquila (near the celestial equator) and northern constellations Cygnus , Cassiopeia , Perseus , Auriga , and Orion (near Betelgeuse ), as well as Monoceros (near
3850-524: The development of today's accepted modern constellations. The southern sky, below about −65° declination , was only partially catalogued by ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese, and Persian astronomers of the north. The knowledge that northern and southern star patterns differed goes back to Classical writers, who describe, for example, the African circumnavigation expedition commissioned by Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II in c. 600 BC and those of Hanno
3927-432: The early 20th century before today's constellations were internationally recognized. The recognition of constellations has changed significantly over time. Many changed in size or shape. Some became popular, only to drop into obscurity. Some were limited to a single culture or nation. Naming constellations also helped astronomers and navigators identify stars more easily. Twelve (or thirteen) ancient constellations belong to
SECTION 50
#17327832108134004-399: The early constellations were never universally adopted. Stars were often grouped into constellations differently by different observers, and the arbitrary constellation boundaries often led to confusion as to which constellation a celestial object belonged. Before astronomers delineated precise boundaries (starting in the 19th century), constellations generally appeared as ill-defined regions of
4081-425: The ecliptic), approximating a great circle . Zodiacal constellations of the northern sky are Pisces , Aries , Taurus , Gemini , Cancer , and Leo . In the southern sky are Virgo , Libra , Scorpius , Sagittarius , Capricornus , and Aquarius . The zodiac appears directly overhead from latitudes of 23.5° north to 23.5° south, depending on the time of year. In summer, the ecliptic appears higher up in
4158-507: The form of star charts , whose oldest representation appears on the statue known as the Farnese Atlas , based perhaps on the star catalogue of the Greek astronomer Hipparchus . Southern constellations are more modern inventions, sometimes as substitutes for ancient constellations (e.g. Argo Navis ). Some southern constellations had long names that were shortened to more usable forms; e.g. Musca Australis became simply Musca. Some of
4235-621: The formal definition, but are also used by observers to navigate the night sky. Asterisms may be several stars within a constellation, or they may share stars with more than one constellation. Examples of asterisms include the teapot within the constellation Sagittarius , or the big dipper in the constellation of Ursa Major . The word constellation comes from the Late Latin term cōnstellātiō , which can be translated as "set of stars"; it came into use in Middle English during
4312-480: The mid-18th century when European explorers began traveling to the Southern Hemisphere . Due to Roman and European transmission, each constellation has a Latin name. In 1922, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally accepted the modern list of 88 constellations , and in 1928 adopted official constellation boundaries that together cover the entire celestial sphere. Any given point in
4389-449: The northeast, while Cassiopeia is the northwest. To the west are Pisces (above the horizon) and Aries. To the southwest Cetus is near the horizon. Up high and to the south are Orion and Taurus. To the southeast above the horizon is Canis Major . Appearing above and to the east of Orion is Gemini : also in the east (and progressively closer to the horizon) are Cancer and Leo. In addition to Taurus, Perseus and Auriga appear overhead. From
4466-602: The numerous Sumerian names in these catalogues suggest that they built on older, but otherwise unattested, Sumerian traditions of the Early Bronze Age . The classical Zodiac is a revision of Neo-Babylonian constellations from the 6th century BC. The Greeks adopted the Babylonian constellations in the 4th century BC. Twenty Ptolemaic constellations are from the Ancient Near East. Another ten have
4543-538: The parts of the southern sky unknown to Ptolemy) by Petrus Plancius (1592, 1597/98 and 1613), Johannes Hevelius (1690) and Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (1763), who introduced fourteen new constellations. Lacaille studied the stars of the southern hemisphere from 1751 until 1752 from the Cape of Good Hope , when he was said to have observed more than 10,000 stars using a refracting telescope with an aperture of 0.5 inches (13 mm). In 1922, Henry Norris Russell produced
4620-455: The pole star include Chamaeleon , Apus and Triangulum Australe (near Centaurus), Pavo , Hydrus , and Mensa . Sigma Octantis is the closest star approximating a southern pole star, but is faint in the night sky. Thus, the pole can be triangulated using the constellation Crux as well as the stars Alpha and Beta Centauri (about 30° counterclockwise from Crux) of the constellation Centaurus (arching over Crux). It has been suggested that
4697-695: The same latitude, in July, Cassiopeia (low in the sky) and Cepheus appear to the northeast. Ursa Major is now in the northwest. Boötes is high up in the west. Virgo is to the west, with Libra southwest and Scorpius south. Sagittarius and Capricorn are southeast. Cygnus (containing the Northern Cross ) is to the east. Hercules is high in the sky along with Corona Borealis . January constellations include Pictor and Reticulum (near Hydrus and Mensa, respectively). In July, Ara (adjacent to Triangulum Australe) and Scorpius can be seen. Constellations near
SECTION 60
#17327832108134774-784: The same stars but different names. Biblical scholar E. W. Bullinger interpreted some of the creatures mentioned in the books of Ezekiel and Revelation as the middle signs of the four-quarters of the Zodiac, with the Lion as Leo , the Bull as Taurus , the Man representing Aquarius , and the Eagle standing in for Scorpio . The biblical Book of Job also makes reference to a number of constellations, including עיש ‘Ayish "bier", כסיל chesil "fool" and כימה chimah "heap" (Job 9:9, 38:31–32), rendered as "Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades" by
4851-518: The sky, but they usually lie at a variety of distances away from the Earth. Since each star has its own independent motion, all constellations will change slowly over time. After tens to hundreds of thousands of years, familiar outlines will become unrecognizable. Astronomers can predict the past or future constellation outlines by measuring common proper motions of individual stars by accurate astrometry and their radial velocities by astronomical spectroscopy . The 88 constellations recognized by
4928-564: The sky. Today they now follow officially accepted designated lines of right ascension and declination based on those defined by Benjamin Gould in epoch 1875.0 in his star catalogue Uranometria Argentina . The 1603 star atlas " Uranometria " of Johann Bayer assigned stars to individual constellations and formalized the division by assigning a series of Greek and Latin letters to the stars within each constellation. These are known today as Bayer designations . Subsequent star atlases led to
5005-536: The southern hemisphere of the sky based on the knowledge of Western star charts; with this improvement, the Chinese Sky was integrated with the World astronomy. Historically, the origins of the constellations of the northern and southern skies are distinctly different. Most northern constellations date to antiquity, with names based mostly on Classical Greek legends. Evidence of these constellations has survived in
5082-595: The southern sky, which did not depict the traditional stars recorded by ancient Chinese astronomers. Further improvements were made during the later part of the Ming dynasty by Xu Guangqi and Johann Adam Schall von Bell , the German Jesuit and was recorded in Chongzhen Lishu (Calendrical Treatise of Chongzhen period , 1628). Traditional Chinese star maps incorporated 23 new constellations with 125 stars of
5159-426: The star with a period of 141.6 days. It has a mass of at least 1.13 Jupiter masses. HAT-P-34 is a star 1.392 ± 0.047 times as massive as the Sun with 1.535 +0.135 −0.102 times its radius and 3.63 +0.75 −0.51 times its luminosity. With an apparent magnitude of 10.4, it is 819 ± 9 light-years distant. A planet 3.328 ± 0.211 times as massive as Jupiter was discovered transiting it in 2012. With
5236-401: The third-smallest area of any constellation. Gamma Sagittae is the constellation's brightest star, with an apparent magnitude of 3.47. It is an aging red giant star 90% as massive as the Sun that has cooled and expanded to a radius 54 times greater than it. Delta , Epsilon , Zeta , and Theta Sagittae are each multiple stars whose components can be seen in small telescopes. V Sagittae
5313-403: The whole constellation is visible to observers north of 69°S . Sagitta is bordered by Vulpecula to the north, Hercules to the west, Aquila to the south, and Delphinus to the east. The three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is "Sge"; American astronomer Henry Norris Russell , who devised the code, had to resort to using
5390-409: The year due to night on Earth occurring at gradually different portions of its orbit around the Sun. As Earth rotates toward the east, the celestial sphere appears to rotate west, with stars circling counterclockwise around the northern pole star and clockwise around the southern pole star. Because of Earth's 23.5° axial tilt , the zodiac is distributed equally across hemispheres (along
5467-451: The years and centuries to come. The constellations have no official symbols, though those of the ecliptic may take the signs of the zodiac. Symbols for the other modern constellations, as well as older ones that still occur in modern nomenclature, have occasionally been published. The Great Rift, a series of dark patches in the Milky Way, is most visible in the southern sky. Some cultures have discerned shapes in these patches. Members of
5544-525: The zodiac and 36 more (now 38, following the division of Argo Navis into three constellations) are listed by Ptolemy , a Greco-Roman astronomer from Alexandria , Egypt, in his Almagest . The formation of constellations was the subject of extensive mythology , most notably in the Metamorphoses of the Latin poet Ovid . Constellations in the far southern sky were added from the 15th century until
5621-467: Was attached to the Quadrantid meteor shower), but is now divided between Boötes and Draco . A list of 88 constellations was produced for the IAU in 1922. It is roughly based on the traditional Greek constellations listed by Ptolemy in his Almagest in the 2nd century and Aratus ' work Phenomena , with early modern modifications and additions (most importantly introducing constellations covering
5698-498: Was finally published in 1930. Where possible, these modern constellations usually share the names of their Graeco-Roman predecessors, such as Orion, Leo, or Scorpius. The aim of this system is area-mapping, i.e. the division of the celestial sphere into contiguous fields. Out of the 88 modern constellations, 36 lie predominantly in the northern sky, and the other 52 predominantly in the southern. The boundaries developed by Delporte used data that originated back to epoch B1875.0 , which
5775-401: Was one of the 48 constellations described by Ptolemy . It was regarded as the weapon that Hercules used to kill the eagle ( Aquila ) of Jove that perpetually gnawed Prometheus ' liver. Sagitta is located beyond the north border of Aquila , the Eagle. An amateur naturalist, polymath Richard Hinckley Allen proposed that the constellation could represent the arrow shot by Hercules towards
5852-688: Was preserved as part of the Dunhuang Manuscripts . Native Chinese astronomy flourished during the Song dynasty , and during the Yuan dynasty became increasingly influenced by medieval Islamic astronomy (see Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era ). As maps were prepared during this period on more scientific lines, they were considered as more reliable. A well-known map from the Song period
5929-406: Was when Benjamin A. Gould first made his proposal to designate boundaries for the celestial sphere, a suggestion on which Delporte based his work. The consequence of this early date is that because of the precession of the equinoxes , the borders on a modern star map, such as epoch J2000 , are already somewhat skewed and no longer perfectly vertical or horizontal. This effect will increase over
#812187