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International Astronomical Union WGSN

Category: Release

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Four Chinese star names applied

In February and March, the WGSN applied four new names of traditional Chinese constellations to stars. ι Cen “Kulou” (库楼) means arsenal and storied building. It is a super-constellation in the area of modern Cen/Lup created in ancient China, dating back to the 2nd century BCE. ζ And “Tian Shi Mu“, The Eye of the…
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Letter from a reader

Dear friends of the IAU – WGSN, I am Paolo Palma, an elementary school teacher and visual astronomer for over 25 years. With this email I wanted to thank you deeply for the work you do, especially for building a site exclusively dedicated to the names of stars and even more for publishing the etymological…
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New Star Names 2024

Press Release The International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) has approved 19 new proper names for stars in 2024, marking another significant step in the organization’s mission to catalogue and standardize stellar nomenclature.  These newly approved names draw from diverse cultural astronomical traditions, reflecting the IAU’s commitment to preserving humanity’s cultural…
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Babylonian Cultural Astronomy

In the recent issue of JAHH, a paper argues that the original Babylonian constellations (pre-MUL.APIN) were used and invented to serve as a cultural calendar. A whole lecture on how this is embedded in the Greco-Babylonian culture (1.5 hours) has been delivered in March by our group member.

WGSN Talk Logo

WGSN explained by Eric Mamajek

For the scientific meeting in November 2023, the founder of the Working Group summarized the ideas, goals and developments.

WGSN Talk Logo

Talk by Alejandro M. López

South American Ethnoastronomy What are the methods, results, data that are collected?

WGSN meets Stellarium

The Working Group Star Names (WGSN) and the Stellarium team met in Jena from 1 to 3 November 2023 to think about ways of managing cultural data together. Astronomy is a science that works across faculties: Astrophysics has admittedly been one of the pioneering sciences for large databases and other repositories since the 1970s and…
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title of talk (screen)

Development of Astronomy in India

Talk by Dr. B. S. Shylaja

title of talk (First Astronomers)

First Astronomers

2022 Arthur and Hilda Winch Annual Lecture given by Duane Hamacher, PhD

title of talk (Meteorite Impacts and the End of the World)

Meteorite Impacts and the End of the World

Public Talk by Professor Duane Hamacher

Ian Ridpath: Pictures in the Sky

On July 15, 2020, in a session of the Virtual Astronomy Club, Ian Ridpath spoke about the history of the constellations. A fascinating tale of how the figures, stories and names have been handed down through different societies to the familiar 88 that are officially recognised today. 

screenshot from talk on constellations (linked to youTube)
screenshot of the online event: four women discussing

International Day of Women in Science

Dr. Danielle Adams

Pluto (dwarf planet, 2006)

Ketkar and the Discovery of Pluto

The Indian astronomer Ketkar had predicted Pluto (and another planet) much more precise than the American and European people who ran the survey programs. However, the discovery in America in 1930 was completely independent from this because his work was unknown in America.

screenshot from talk on constellations (linked to youTube)

Talk (German): Wie der Löwe an den Himmel kam

Wie der Löwe an den Himmel kam (Franckh-Kosmos-Verlag 2021) Das neue Buch über die wahren Geschichten der Sternbilder.

title of talk: Indigenous Astronomers

Indigenous Astronomers

Indigenous astronomy in Mer Associate Professor Duane Hamacher at University of Melbourne

Sternbilder-Transformationen

Animationen

Vortrag am Haus der Astronomie

Pflichtthema der Jahreszeit

Vortrag am Haus der Astronomie

Vortrag zum Thema Applied Historical Astronomy

Konferenz

organisiert