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Catalogues and Constellations

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An Introduction to Observational Astrophysics

Part of the book series: Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics ((ULNP))

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Abstract

Constellations in the night sky have been important to many cultures. Astronomers have adopted the Greek constellations to provide a regional map for the location of objects. Since before the invention of the telescope, astronomers have been classifying and cataloguing objects, so that there are now in excess of 200 such catalogues. Thus, knowing which catalogue is most appropriate to the task at hand is an important tool in observational astronomy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    GoTo telescopes have powered mounts and either a custom-built interface or computer control that allows the user to move rapidly between targets. Typically, the user has to point the telescope to three guide stars to set it up.

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Gallaway, M. (2020). Catalogues and Constellations. In: An Introduction to Observational Astrophysics. Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43551-6_6

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