What are the Greek letters on star charts?

by Diana Hannikainen

TAKE A CLOSE LOOK at the central star map featured on pages 42-43 — or at the snippet at right. You'll see that besides the constellation names (in purple) and star names (in white) there are Greek letters accompanying many of the star symbols. (Messier objects are prefixed with the letter ‘M’.) You might very well have been wondering what those curious characters mean and what purpose they serve. Well, we're here to clear that up for you. Higgledy-piggledy heavens There wasn't much organisation to the skies back in the mists of time, when early stargazers first cast their eyes skyward. We owe much of our knowledge of the ancient skies to the 2nd-century Alexandrian astronomer, Claudius Ptolemaeus, better known as Ptolemy. His legacy is a fascinating compendium entitled the Almagest. The Almagest…

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Australian Sky & Telescope (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2023

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