|
by John P. Pratt
Updated 20 Feb 2020
©2017 by John P. Pratt. All rights Reserved.
A free downloadable catalog of the stars in the Star Calendar is now available in standard spreadsheet format.
A free downloadable spreadsheet of the current proposed list of 371 stars (counting doubles as one) used in the Star Calendar described in my work is now available by clicking the above "Download" link. It is built on the foundation of my previously released Restored Constellation Catalog.
The stars are listed in order of day on the Star Calendar from 1 to 371, comprising 364 days in a normal year and 7 extra days in a leap year. That is called the ID because it can be used to sort the data back into the original order. The year begins on a Saturday at noon when the sun is near the first star in Virgo, being ν Vir. Each day is associated both with a specific star and also with a day within a zodiac constellation. For example, the first day of the year is called 1 Vir, followed by 2 Vir. The first day of each zodiac constellation also begins on a Sunday, which technically begins at noon local sundial time on the Saturday preceding it. Some stars are considered to be in two constellations. If so, two consecutive days have the same star, but in different constellations.
Some constellations overlap each other. In that case, a day is considered to be in one constellation or the other.
| Col. | Contents |
|---|---|
| A | ID: day number of Star Year (1-371) |
| B | Day number in the Zodiac Constellation |
| C | Zodiac Constellation Abbreviation |
| D | Ideal Lunar Mansion Slot |
| E | Star Number in Constellation |
| F | Constellation Abbreviation |
| G | Constellation Number |
| H | Bright Star (HR) Number |
| I | Lunar Mansion Number |
| J | Bayer (Greek letter) ID |
| K | Sidereal Day |
| L | Star Latitude |
| M | Visual Magnitude (V) |
| N | Official IAU Star Name |
| O | My Name for Star |
| P | Star Name (N or O) |
| Q | My English Name for Star |
| R | Bayer ID in English |
| S | Explanation of English Name |
Column A is the day of the star year from 1 to 371. It is called ID because it can also be used to sort the data back into the original order.
Column B contains the day within a zodiac constellation. The Star Calendar is divided into twelve zodiac constellations, similar to months. They always begin on a Sunday and end on a Saturday. Their lengths depend on the actual lengths of the zodiac constellations in the sky: Virgo contains seven weeks and Cancer two weeks.
Column C is the three letter abbreviation of the zodiac constellation.
Column D is the ideal lunar mansion day. Lunar mansions are ideally separated by 13 days (28 x 13 = 364). Every 13th day is numbered from 1 to 28 in this column. The first day was chosen in a way to best fit the actual stars traditionally used by the Babylonians and Arabs.
Column E is the star number assigned to the constellation in which the star resides as numbered in my Restored Constellation Catalog. Column F is the abbreviation for the constellation to which the star belongs. Column G is my constellation number taken from the Restored Constellation Catalog. Some of them are further subdivided into sections of the constellation for sorting purposed.
Column H contains the Bright Star Catalog star number of each star included. Those numbers are referred to as the HR number for "Harvard Revised". Some stars are listed twice if anciently they were consider to be included in two different constellations, so this number cannot be used to identify a star day because it may refer to either of two consecutive star days.
Column I contains my choice for the star to fill each ideal lunar mansion slot listed in column D. Thus one can compare the two columns to see how far away the actual star is from the ideal slot. The stars selected for this honor were mostly taken from the Babylonian and Arabic lists which sometimes differed.
Column J contains the traditional star designation using the Bayer notion of Greek letters or Flamsteed numbers. Because this calendar is for unaided eye astronomy, double star designations are only used if the stars appear separate visually. For example, σ1 CMa is more than a degree away from σ2 CMa, so the component number is also listed in order to identify the star.
Column K contains the sidereal day. This is similar to the ecliptic longitude of a star, except that is is measured in days (1-364) instead of degrees (1-360) and the origin is defined to be the star π Vir which is defined to exactly Siderel Day 8.000 (on day 4 Vir). That was done because π Vir is the origin of sidereal longitude but it is not located at the beginning star of Virgo. The basis of the calendar is the the sidereal day in column K should be approximately equal to the day number of the year in Column A. Ideally the table would already be sorted on Column K if every star fit exactly into its slot. In practice, bright stars are sometimes shifted to fall on sacred Sunday holy days such as the 15th and 22nd days of each zodiac constellation, similar to Hebrew holy days of week long feasts beginning on the 15th, such as Passover and Tabernacles. Moreover, stars are shifted in order for each zodiac constellation to begin on a Sunday.
Column L is the latitude of the star rounded to the nearest degree.
Column M is the visual magnitude of the star.
If the star has an official name listed by the International Astronomical Union, it is listed in Column N. Otherwise, I have created names (mostly Arabic, Greek or Latin) for many of the other stars, which are listed in Column O. Column P contains whichever of those two names applies, which to me is the star name. Column Q contains my English name for the star, which is usually not a translation of the IAU name, but always is a translation of my star names. They often reflect the religious importance of the star day.
Column R contains the star designation with the Greek Bayer letters translated to English in case one is not familiar with Greek letters or the spreadsheet program does not support Unicode characters. It also retains the double star number for better identification.
Column S contains an explanation of why that English name was Chosen.
This spreadsheet may be updated from time to time without notice, especially to add new star names, with the date on this page being the only indication of such changes. Much of this information is also available as an HTML table.