414 ASTRO 
facied or profane. In the book of Job the names of fome 
of them are mentioned; witnefs that fublime expoftulation, 
“ Canft thou reftrain the fweet influence of the Pleiades, 
or loofen the bands of Orion ?” And the fame may be 
obferved of the oldeft among the heathen writers, Hefiod 
and Homer. This divilion of the ancients took in only 
the vifible firmament, or fo many of the ftars as came un¬ 
der their notice, as vifible to the naked eye ; and were 
grouped, or reprefented, by certain figures or images, to 
affifl the imagination and memory, to conceive or retain 
the number, order, and difpofition, of the liars; and per¬ 
haps alfo to diflinguifh the virtues they attributed to each 
refpedlive conftellation. The earlieft of thefe is con¬ 
tained in the catalogue of Ptolemy, given in the feventh 
book of his Almagelt, prepared, as he affures us, from 
his own obfervations, compared with thofe of Hipparchus, 
and the other ancient aftronomers. In this catalogue Pto¬ 
lemy has formed forty-eight confiellations. Of thefe, 
twelve are about the ecliptic, commonly called the twelve 
figns ; twenty-one to the north of it; and fifteen to the 
fouth. The northern confiellations are, the Little Bear, 
the Great Bear, the Dragon, Cepheus, Bootes, the Nor¬ 
thern Crown, Hercules, the Harp, the Swan, CalTiopeia, 
Perfeus, Auriga, Ophiucus or Serpentary, the Serpent, 
the Arrow, the Eagle, the Dolphin, the Horfe, Pegafus, 
Andromeda, and the Triangle. 
The confiellations about the ecliptic are Aries, Taurus, 
Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, 
Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pifces; or according to the Eng- 
lifh names, the Ram, the Bull, the Twins, the Crab, the 
Lion, the Virgin, the Balance, the Scorpion, the Archer, 
the Goat, the Water-bearer, and the Fiihes. 
The Southern confiellations are, the Whale, Orion, the 
Eridanus, the Hare, the Great Dog, the Little Dog, the 
Ship, the Hydra, the Cup, the Raven, the Centaur, the 
Wolf, the Altar, the Southern Crown, and the Southern 
Fill). The other ftars not comprehended under thefe con- 
(lellations, yet vifible to the naked eye, the ancients called 
informes , or fporades, fome of which the modern aftro- 
nomers have fince reduced into new figures, or confiella¬ 
tions. Ptolemy has fet down the longitude and latitude of 
all thofe ftars to about the year of Chrift 137, amounting 
to the number of 1022, viz. 
In the northern confiellations - 360 
In the zodiacal confiellations - 346 
In the fouthern confiellations - 316 
In all of Ptolemy’s catalogue 
Among the modern aftronomers, Tycho Brahe is the 
■firft who determined, with exaftnefs, and in confequence 
Of his own obfervations, the longitude and latitude of the 
fixed ftars, out of which he formed forty-five confiellations; 
of thefe, forty-three were of the old ones defcribed by 
Ptolemy, to which Tycho added the Coma Berenices, and 
Antinous; but he omits five of the old fouthern confiella¬ 
tions, viz. the Centaur, the Wolf, the Altar, the Southern 
Crotvn, and Southern Fifii ; which he Could not obferve, 
becaafe of .the high northern latitude of Uranibourg. 
After Tycho, Bayer gave the figures of fixty confiella¬ 
tions, very exactly reprefented, and with tables annexed, 
having added, to the forty-eight old ones of Ptolemy, the 
following twelve about the fouth pole, viz. the Peacock, 
the Toucan, the Crane, the Phoenix, the Dorado, the Fly¬ 
ing Fifh, the Hydra, the Cameleoo, the Bee, the Bird of 
Paradife, the Triangle, and the Indian. Befides accurate¬ 
ly diftinguifhing the relative fize and the fituation of eve¬ 
ry liar, Bayer firft marked the ftars in each conftellation 
with the letters of the Greek and Roman alphabets. The 
number and order of the ftars, as mentioned by Bayer, are, 
Of the firft magnitude 
Oft the fecond magnitude 
Oftfie third magnitude 
Of the fourth magnitude 
Of the fifth magnitude 
Of the fixth magnitude 
Of the unformed (tars 
n 
63 
196 
415 
348 
341 
3 s6 . 
K 
N O M Y. 
In the year 1663, Riccioli publiftied his Aftronom'y 'Re¬ 
formed, containing the ftars in fixty-two confiellations,. 
viz. the fixty of Bayer, with the Coma Berenices and An¬ 
tinous of Tycho. He diftributes the ftars in all the con- 
ftellations into four claffes. In the firft of thefe dalles are 
contained thofe ftars determined by his own obfervations, 
and thofe of Grimaldi. In the fecond are thofe ftars which 
had been afcertained by Tycho Brahe and Kepler. In the 
third are the ftars determined by Hipparchus and Ptolemy. 
And the fourth clafs confifts of thofe of the fouthern he- 
mifphere difcovered by navigators, who have afcertained 
their places in a more or lefs accurate manner ; in which 
he has marked the longitudes and latitudes for the year 
1700, the period to which he has reduced all his obferva¬ 
tions. This was followed by a number of celellial fchemes 
and maps of the heavens, publifhed in 1673 by Pardies, 
who has reprefented very carefully all the confiellations,' 
with the ftars they contain. Some time after this, Royer 
publiftied maps of the heavens, reduced into four tables, 
with a catalogue of the fixed ftars for the year 1700. To 
the ftars marked by Bayer, he adds a number of ftars not 
before feen, with others taken from the tables of Riccioli, 
and not mentioned by Bayer: he alfo forms, out of the 
unformed ftars, eleven other confiellations. Five of thefe 
are to the north, and are called the Giraffe, the River Jor¬ 
dan, the River Tigris, the Sceptre, and the Flovver-de- 
Luce; with fix on the fouth part, which are the Dove, 
the Unicorn, the Crofs, the Great Cloud, the Little 
Cloud, and the Rhomboid. To this work Royer has- 
joined the fouthern ftars obferved by Dr. Halley at the 
ifiand of St. Helena. 
Hevelius has alfo improved upon the labours of thofe 
who went before him, and collected together feveral ftars 
of the before-unformed clafs into fome new confiellations. 
Thefe are, the Unicorn, the Camelopardalis, defcribed by 
Bartfchius, the Sextant of Urania, the Dogs, the Little Lion, 
the Lynx, the Fox and Goofe, the Sobiefki’s Crown, the 
Lizard, the Little Triangle, and the Cerberus; to which 
Gregory has added the Ring and the Armilla. Some of 
thefe new confiellations however anfwer to thofe of Royer, 
as the Camelopardalis to the Giraffe, the Dogs to the River 
Jordan, and the Fox to the River Tigris. The latitudes 
and longitudes are added for the year 1700. Finally, Flam- 
ftead diftinguifhed all the ftars into feven daffies, or orders 
of magnitude, marking their variation in right afcenfion, 
for fhewing their fituation in the fucceeding years. This 
was followed by an Atlas Cceleftis, publifhed in the year 
1729, defcribing, in feveral fchemes, the figures of the 
confiellations feen in our heniifphere, with the exadt pofi- 
tion of the fixed ftars, with refpeft to the circles of the 
fphere. Later obfervations, made with improved tele- 
fcopes, have greatly enlarged the number and accuracy of 
the ftars; but the number of the confiellations remains as 
above defcribed, except that an attempt has been lately 
made by Dr. Hill to add to the lift fourteen new ones, 
formed out of more of the clufters of unformed ftars. 
Befide the literal marks of the ftars introduced by Bay¬ 
er, and others, it is ufual alfo to diflinguifh them by that 
part of the conftellation in which they are placed; and 
many of them again have their peculiar names ; as Arc- 
turus, between the knees of Bootes; Gemina, or Lucida, 
in the Corona Septentrionalis, or Northern Crown; Pali- 
litium or Aldebaran in the Bull’s eye, Pleiades in his 
neck, and Hyades in his forehead; Caftor and Pollux, in 
the heads of Gemini; Capella, with the Hcedi, in the 
ftioulder of Auriga; Regulus, or Cor Leonis, the Lion’s 
Heart; Spica Virginis in the hand, and Vindemiatrix, in 
the fhotilder, of Virgo; Antares, or Cor Scorpionis, the 
Scorpion’s Heart; Fomalhaut, in the mouth of Pifces 
Auftralis, or Southern Fifh ; Regel, in the foot of Orion; 
Sirius, in the mouth of Canis Major, the Great Dog; 
Procyon, in the back of Canis Minor, the Little Dog; and 
the Pole Star, the laft in the tail of Urfa Minor, the Lit¬ 
tle Bear. 
The Greek and Roman poets, from the ancient theolo- 
1 SYi 
