Constellation Boundaries Update - 21st Century Complete

• Autores: Durst, S.; Mico, C.
• Año de publicación: 2025
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: documento de conferencia
• Materia: Ciencias Astronómicas; Constellation boundaries; Cultural astronomy; International Celestial Reference System (ICRS)
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de La Plata

For millennia, humans used asterisms to track seasons, tell cultural stories, and measure time, as seen in artifacts like the Dendera Zodiac (circa 50 BCE) and the Babylonian MUL.APIN. John Flamsteed’s Atlas Coclcstis (1729) reflects this, mapping stars within traditional asterisms while including some telescopic stars. Flamsteed preserved overlaps, such as Capricornus’ stars in Aquarius’ arm, However, Eugène Delporte’s 1930 IAU standardization introduced 88 constellation boundaries using straight lines of right ascension and declination, aligned to the B 1875.0 and B 1900.0 epochs, fundamentally changing this system. Using Carte du Ciel software to observe existing constellation boundaries and Flamsteed’s charts, we identified discrepancies in the Pisces-Aquarius-Capricornus-Cetus region. Stars like 11 Peg, HD 209522, HD 210848, and Eta Psa were reassigned by Delporte’s lines disrupting cultural coherence Today, celestial maps’ original roles—seasonal prediction, storytelling, and timekeeping—are obsolete, replaced by digital age technologies like meteorology and atomic clocks. Delporte’s earth-centric boundaries also face obsolescence due to precession and stellar motion, We advocate for a dual framework to preserve cultural heritage while advancing astronomical precision, archiving cultural asterisms as borderless to preserve their historical significance, while adopting a universe-centric system using the International Celestial Reference System (ICRS) and Gaia’s 3D stellar data, balancing heritage with future astronomical precision. This approach not only honors our astronomical heritage but also embraces the precision required for future celestial exploration.
Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas