constellationlines

Data to draw the 88 constellation stick figures in the night sky

https://github.com/marcvdsluys/constellationlines

Repository

Data to draw the 88 constellation stick figures in the night sky

readme.org

#+title: Constellation lines

* Introduction
The file [[ConstellationLines.dat]] contains lists of stars from the [[https://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/Cat?V/50][Bright Star Catalogue]] (BSC, 5th Revised
Ed.; Preliminary Version, 1991) that can be connected in order to draw the basic constellations of our night
sky.  The file was originally created in early 2005, for what was to become the Dutch/Flemish
popular-astronomy website [[http://hemel.waarnemen.com][hemel.waarnemen.com]].  Four static example maps can be found on that website (with
labels in Dutch): [[http://hemel.waarnemen.com/kaarten/vast/noordpool.jpg][North pole]], [[http://hemel.waarnemen.com/kaarten/vast/equator_08-00-16.jpg][Equator ~0h RA]], [[http://hemel.waarnemen.com/kaarten/vast/equator_20-12-04.jpg][Equator ~12h RA]], [[http://hemel.waarnemen.com/kaarten/vast/zuidpool.jpg][South pole]].


* Using the data
The data files are in plain text.

** ConstellationLines.dat
Each data line in the file shows a list of space-separated values that can be used to draw a single line on
the map (usually a single constellation).  To keep the number of lines limited (most constellations use up a
single line in the file), sometimes a drawn line retraces itself without 'taking the pen off the map'.  Note
that some constellations (e.g. Cru) cannot be drawn using only one line, and have multiple data lines in this
file.

*** Column descriptions
1. Latin constellation abbreviation (~%3s~);
2. number of stars to draw lines between = number of numbers following on this line (~%2d~);
3. (rest of the columns; max 31) BSC numbers for those stars (1-9110) (~%4d~ each).

** ConstellationLines.csv
The data are identical to those in ~ConstellationLines.dat~, but the columns are comma-separated rather than
space-separated, and can be read without formatting statements.

*** Column descriptions
+ abr :: Latin constellation abbreviation;
+ nr  :: number of stars to draw lines between = number of numbers following on this line;
+ sXX :: BSC numbers for those stars (1-9110; rest of the columns: XX=01-31); empty if unused.

* Copyright and citation
Copyright (c) 2005-2023, Marc van der Sluys, [[http://hemel.waarnemen.com][hemel.waarnemen.com]].

DOI: [[https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10397192][10.5281.zenodo.10397192]]

[[https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10397192][file:pics/doi-10.5281-zenodo-10397192.png]]


* Licence
The data can be used under the terms of the Creative Commons [[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/][Attribution 4.0 International]] (CC BY 4.0)
licence.

[[file:pics/CC-BY-4.0_88x31.png]]


* Usage
+ [[http://tabletopwhale.com/2019/07/15/the-western-constellations.html][The Western Constellations]], by Eleanor Lutz (2019)
+ [[https://explore-platform.eu/articles/create-your-own-sky-map,-find-the-weirdest-stars-and-explore-the-surface-of-the-moon-with-the-explore-astronomy-toolkit][EXPLORE toolkit]] (EU Horizon 2020 project, 2023)

Owner

Citation (CITATION.cff)

cff-version: 1.2.0
title: ConstellationLines
message: >-
  If you use this dataset, please cite it using the metadata
  from this file.
type: dataset
authors:
  - given-names: Marc
    family-names: van der Sluys
    orcid: 'https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1231-0762'
    affiliation: 'Nikhef, Amsterdam / Utrecht University'
identifiers:
  - type: doi
    value: 10.5281/zenodo.10397197
repository-code: 'https://github.com/MarcvdSluys/ConstellationLines/'
url: >-
  https://github.com/MarcvdSluys/ConstellationLines/releases/tag/v1.0
abstract: >-
  Data to draw constellation lines ("stick figures") for the
  88 constellations in the night sky, using the Bright Star
  Catalogue (BSC).
keywords:
  - Constellations
  - Astronomy
  - Night sky
  - Stars
license: CC-BY-4.0
commit: e93207f
version: '1.3'
date-released: '2023-12-18'

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