Abstract
MR. R. A. PROCTOR has planned a star-atlas on a plan which presents several advantages. The celestial sphere is to be divided according to this plan into twelve equal parts, each pentagonal in shape; but, each map being made circular, there is a slight overlapping, which prevents any star-group from being broken off at the edge of a map, as in all the arrangements hitherto adopted. Owing to the equality of the maps and the choice of a central projection (the equidistant) the distortion is reduced to a minimum. In fact, for the first time in the histoiy of star-mapping, a plan is adopted by which, with a moderate number of maps, there is no appreciable distortion or scale-variation. The woodcut which gives (on a reduced scale and with inverted colours) a portion of Map 2 of the series (where it overlaps Map 4), exhibits some of the principal peculiarities of the new scheme. It will be noticed that though this portion belongs to the outer portion of the map (where the distortion is greatest) the figures between the parallels and meridians are of their proper shape. The arrow indicating precession in direction and magnitude (for 100 years) is a novel and very simple mode of exhibiting this important relation. The way in which the constellation-names are introduced is also new, and seems preferable to the old arrangement, in which the name straggling over the whole constellation at once confused the star-grouping, and was itself almost illegible unless printed in very large letters. The figure also includes instances of the mode of marking double, triple, and multiple stars, binaries (known or suspected), variables, Messier's nebulæ, Sir W. Herschel's classification of his nebulæ, and so on.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
New Star-Atlas . Nature 1, 84–85 (1869). https://doi.org/10.1038/001084a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/001084a0