was a description of the constellations derived from Al-Sufi's translation of five centuries previously.
The catalogues of Copernicus and Tycho Brahe followed, the former's great work laying the foundations of modern astronomy. In 1603 the Uranometria of Johann Bayer appeared in Germany. This chart contained forty-eight constellations and a list of 709 stars. Bayer invented the system in vogue to-day of denoting each star by a letter of the Greek alphabet, the brightest star in each figure being designated Alpha with the Latin genitive of the constellation. It was soon found that the stars in many of the groups exceeded the number of letters in the alphabet, and such stars were denoted by the letters of the Roman alphabet.
Succeeding Bayer's catalogue there appeared consecutively the charts of Bartsch, Schiller, Kepler, Royer, Halley, and in 1690 that of Hevelius, who added the asterisms of the Hunting Dogs, the Giraffe, the Lizard, the Unicorn, the Lynx, the Sextant, Fox and Goose, and Sobieski's Shield, all recognised by modern astronomers.[1]
Flamsteed's catalogue, published in 1719, comprised fifty-four constellation figures, and exhibited a new method of stellar designation, the stars being consecutively numbered in the order of their right ascension, a method employed in modern charts for the fainter stars.
La Caille, known as "the true Columbus of the southern sky," in his publications of 1752 and 1763, invented fourteen new star groups which included the names of many instruments of the sciences and fine arts, the majority of which have been rejected by modern delineators of the constellations.
- ↑ In the case of the charts of Bartsch and Schiller it is of interest to note that these astronomers endeavoured to do away for all time with the old constellation names, and Christianise, so to speak, the stellar hosts. On their charts the twelve Apostles were each represented by a constellation, and other Biblical names were substituted for the time-honoured figures. It is needless to add that this nomenclature was not popular and failed of general adoption.
