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Reticulum (Chinese Astronomy)
The modern constellation Reticulum is not included in the Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions system of traditional Chinese uranography because its stars are too far south for observers in China to know about them prior to the introduction of Western star charts. Based on the work of Xu Guangqi and the German Jesuit missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell in the late Ming Dynasty, this constellation has been classified as two of the 23 Southern Asterisms (近南極星區, ''Jìnnánjíxīngōu'') under the name Snake's Head (蛇首, ''Shéshǒu'') and White Patches Attached (夾白, ''Jiābái''). The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is 網罟座 (''wǎng gǔ zuò''), meaning "net for birds or fish constellation". Stars The map of Chinese constellation in constellation Reticulum area consists of: See also *Chinese astronomy *Traditional Chinese star names *Chinese constellations Traditional Chinese astronomy has a system of dividing the celestial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reticulum
Reticulum is a small, faint constellation in the southern sky. Its name is Latin for a small net, or reticle—a net of crosshairs at the focus of a telescope eyepiece that is used to measure star positions. The constellation is best viewed between October and December, and save for one main star visible in ideal conditions, cannot be seen from north of the 30th parallel north. History A constellation in this area was introduced by Isaac Habrecht II in his celestial globe in 1621, who named it ''Rhombus''. It was replaced with a somewhat different constellation by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the eighteenth century; during his stay at the Cape of Good Hope, he named the constellation le Réticule Rhomboide to commemorate the reticle in his telescope eyepiece. The name was later Latinized to Reticulum in his star catalogue ''Coelum Australe Stelliferum''. In 1810, the stars of Reticulum were used by William Croswell to produce the constellation '' Marmo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three Enclosures
Traditional Chinese astronomy has a system of dividing the celestial sphere into asterisms or constellations, known as "officials" ( Chinese ''xīng guān''). The Chinese asterisms are generally smaller than the constellations of Hellenistic tradition. The Song dynasty (13th-century) Suzhou planisphere shows a total of 283 asterisms, comprising a total of 1,565 individual stars. The asterisms are divided into four groups, the Twenty-Eight Mansions (, ''Èrshíbā Xiù'') along the ecliptic, and the Three Enclosures of the northern sky. The southern sky was added as a fifth group in the late Ming dynasty based on European star charts, comprising an additional 23 asterisms. The Three Enclosures (, ''Sān Yuán'') include the Purple Forbidden Enclosure, which is centered on the north celestial pole and includes those stars which could be seen year-round,Needham, J.Astronomy in Ancient and Medieval China. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London''. Serie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twenty-Eight Mansions
The Twenty-Eight Mansions (), also called or , are part of the Chinese constellations system. They can be considered as the equivalent to the Zodiac, zodiacal constellations in Western astronomy, though the Twenty-eight Mansions reflect the movement of the Moon through a Lunar month, sidereal month rather than the Sun in a tropical year. The lunar mansion system was in use in other parts of East Asia, such as ancient Japan; the ''Bansenshūkai'', written by Fujibayashi Yasutake, mentions the system several times and includes an image of the twenty-eight mansions. A similar system, called nakshatra, is used in traditional Indian astronomy. Overview Ancient Chinese astronomers divided the sky ecliptic into four regions, collectively known as the Four Symbols, each assigned a mysterious animal. They are Azure Dragon (青龍) on the east, Black Tortoise (玄武) on the north, White Tiger (mythology), White Tiger (白虎) on the west, and Vermilion Bird (朱雀) on the south. E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Traditional Chinese Star Names
Chinese star names (Chinese language, Chinese: , ''xīng míng'') are named according to ancient Chinese astronomy and Chinese astrology, astrology. The sky is divided into Chinese constellations, star mansions (, ''xīng xiù'', also translated as "lodges") and asterisms (, ''xīng guān''). The ecliptic is divided into four sectors that are associated with the Four Symbols, guardians in Chinese mythology, and further into 28 mansions. Stars around the north celestial pole are grouped into three enclosures (, ''yuán''). The system of 283 asterisms under the Chinese constellations, Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions was established by Chen Zhuo of the Three Kingdoms period, who synthesized ancient constellations and the asterisms created by early astronomers Shi Shen, Gan De and Wuxian (Shang dynasty), Wuxian. Since the Han dynasty, Han and Jin dynasty (266–420), Jin dynasties, stars have been given reference numbers within their asterisms in a system similar to the Bayer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xu Guangqi
Xu Guangqi or Hsü Kuang-ch'i (April 24, 1562– November 8, 1633), also known by his baptismal name Paul or Paul Siu, was a Chinese agronomist, astronomer, mathematician, scholar-bureaucrat, politician, and writer during the late Ming dynasty. Xu was appointed by the Chinese Emperor in 1629 to be the leader of the Chongzhen calendar, Shixian calendar reform, which he embarked on with the assistance of Jesuits. Xu was a colleague and collaborator of the Italian Jesuits Matteo Ricci and Sabatino de Ursis and assisted their translation of several classic Western texts into Chinese, including part of Euclid's ''Euclid's Elements, Elements''. He was also the author of the ''Nong Zheng Quan Shu'', a treatise on agriculture. He is one of the "Three Pillars of Chinese Catholicism". The Roman Catholic Church considers him a Servant of God, one of the stages towards formal sainthood. On April 15, 2011, Holy See, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi announced the start of a beatification ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann Adam Schall Von Bell
Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1 May 1591 – 15 August 1666) was a German Jesuit, astronomer and instrument-maker. He spent most of his life as a missionary in China (where he is remembered as "Tang Ruowang") and became an adviser to the Shunzhi Emperor of the Qing dynasty. Life Schall von Bell was born to noble parents in Cologne or nearby Lüftelberg (today part of Meckenheim) in the Holy Roman Empire. After he graduated from the Jesuit Gymnasium in Cologne he moved to Rome and studied subjects such as mathematics and astronomy at the Collegium Germanicum. In 1611 he joined the Society of Jesus and continued his education at the Gregorianum. In 1618 he left for China on a Portuguese ship with a group of missionaries under the lead of Nicolas Trigault. The next year the group reached the Portuguese trading port of Macau where Schall von Bell spent some time learning Chinese. He started missionary work inside China in 1622, but allegedly his success was limited. He p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump state, rump regimes ruled by remnants of the House of Zhu, Ming imperial family, collectively called the Southern Ming, survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor (1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the naval history of China, navy's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Constellations
Traditional Chinese astronomy has a system of dividing the celestial sphere into asterisms or constellations, known as "officials" ( Chinese ''xīng guān''). The Chinese asterisms are generally smaller than the constellations of Hellenistic tradition. The Song dynasty (13th-century) Suzhou planisphere shows a total of 283 asterisms, comprising a total of 1,565 individual stars. The asterisms are divided into four groups, the Twenty-Eight Mansions (, ''Èrshíbā Xiù'') along the ecliptic, and the Three Enclosures of the northern sky. The southern sky was added as a fifth group in the late Ming dynasty based on European star charts, comprising an additional 23 asterisms. The Three Enclosures (, ''Sān Yuán'') include the Purple Forbidden Enclosure, which is centered on the north celestial pole and includes those stars which could be seen year-round,Needham, J.Astronomy in Ancient and Medieval China. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London''. Ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beta Reticuli
Beta Reticuli (Beta Ret, β Reticuli, β Ret) is binary star system in southern constellation of Reticulum. It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of +3.84. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 33.49 mas, it is located some 97 light years from our Sun. This is a single-lined spectroscopic binary with an orbital period of 5.25 years and an eccentricity of 0.33. The primary, component A, is an evolved K-type giant star with a stellar classification of K0 IVSB:. It is between 5 and 6 billion years old, with 1.2 times the mass of the Sun and 9.3 times the Sun's radius. The companion, component B, is most likely a red dwarf with a classification in the range M0–M4. During the mid-20th century, the Dutch-American astronomer Willem Jacob Luyten proposed that the G3V star HD 24293 formed a third component of this system, based upon similar proper motion Proper motion is the astrometric measu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpha Reticuli
Alpha Reticuli, Latinized from α Reticuli, also named Rhombus, is the brightest star in the southern circumpolar constellation of Reticulum, with an apparent visual magnitude of 3.3. This appears to be a solitary star located at a distance of 160 light-years from Earth. Although it is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, the declination of this star means that it is best viewed from the southern hemisphere and is only readily visible south of the Tropic of Cancer. Characteristics This star has about three times the mass of the Sun and is about 300 million years old. The spectrum of this star matches a stellar classification of G8 II-III, with the luminosity class notation 'II-III' indicating it shows some traits of both a giant star and a bright giant. At this evolutionary stage, the surface has expanded to 13 times the radius of the Sun and the outer envelope has an effective temperature of 4,800 K. X-ray emission has been detected fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Astronomy
Astronomy in China has a long history stretching from the Shang dynasty, being refined over a period of more than 3,000 years. The Ancient China, ancient Chinese people have identified stars from 1300 BCE, as Chinese star names later categorized in the twenty-eight mansions have been found on oracle bones unearthed at Anyang, dating back to the mid-Shang dynasty. The core of the "mansion" (宿 ''xiù'') system also took shape around this period, by the time of King Wu Ding (1250–1192 BCE). Detailed records of astronomical observations began during the Warring States period (fourth century BCE). They flourished during the Han period (202 BCE – 220 CE) and subsequent dynasties with the publication of star catalogues. Chinese astronomy was equatorial, centered on close observation of circumpolar stars, and was based on different principles from those in traditional Western astronomy, where heliacal risings and settings of zodiac constellations formed the basic ecliptic framew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
