Overview

This combined gazetteer and atlas lists, defines and illustrates, for the first time, every named object in the sky within a single reference work for use by the general reader, writers and editors dealing with astronomical themes, and those astronomers concerned with any aspect of astronomical nomenclature. The naming of celestial objects is a vast subject, as might befit the study of the largest object known to man-the Universe itself. All human culture, past and present, is represented here. Surface features of the explored planets and satellites are named not only after famous scientists, mathematicians, artists and writers, but also after gods, good and evil spirits, villages, towns, peoples and literary characters from the remote past to the present day. In astronomical nomenclature all the human psyche is projected onto the sky and the surfaces of celestial bodies. While astronomers must perforce be clinical and disinterested in the pursuance of their research, the effort and imagination that the astronomical community has devoted in the past and continues to devote today to the naming of celestial bodies and the features observed on them offer abundant proof, if such were needed, of the fundamental humanity of the scientific enterprise. The problems inherent in a nomenclature system so diverse and rooted in history, as is the case for astronomy, necessitate a detailed description of how nomenclature works today and how it was conducted in the past (since much present day nomenclature is handed down to us from past times). Such a description is provided in the extensive introduction to astronomical nomenclature. For the reader in a hurry but who is unfamiliar with the subject a brief user's guide follows the introduction.

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Terry Mahoney is an astronomer and scientific editor at the Scientific Editorial Service, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. While specializing in the structure of the galaxy, Dr. Mahoney's research interests also include astrolexicography, the use of language and methods of communication in astronomy, and the lives and work of both Johannes Kepler and John Flamsteed. Dr. Mahoney is a member of the editorial staff of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, Astronomy Advisor to the Oxford English Dictionary, Editor of the Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal and chair to the International Year of Astronomy 2009 Kepler Task Group.

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