Hydrus in Chinese astronomy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The modern constellation Hydrus is not included in the Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions system of traditional Chinese uranography because its stars are too far south for observers in China to know about them prior to the introduction of Western star charts. Based on the work of Xu Guangqi and the German Jesuit missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell in the late Ming Dynasty,[1] this constellation has been classified under the 23 Southern Asterisms (近南極星區, Jìnnánjíxīngōu) with the names Snake's Tail (蛇尾, Shéwěi), Snake's Abdomen (蛇腹, Shéfù), Snake's Head (蛇首, Shéshǒu) and White Patched Nearby (附白, Fùbái).
The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is 水蛇座 (shuǐ shé zuò), which means "the water snake constellation."
Stars
The map of Chinese constellation in constellation Hydrus area consists of:
| Four Symbols | Mansion (Chinese name) | Romanization | Translation | Asterisms (Chinese name) | Romanization | Translation | Western star name | Chinese star name | Romanization | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | 近南極星區 (non-mansions) | Jìnnánjíxīngōu (non-mansions) | The Southern Asterisms (non-mansions) | |||||||
| 蛇尾 | Shéwěi | Snake's Tail | β Hyi[2] | 蛇尾一 | Shéwěiyī | 1st star | ||||
| 蛇腹 | Shéfù | Snake's Abdomen | ||||||||
| ζ Hyi[2] | 蛇腹一 | Shéfùyī | 1st star | |||||||
| ε Hyi[2] | 蛇腹二 | Shéfùèr | 2nd star | |||||||
| δ Hyi[2] | 蛇腹三 | Shéfùsān | 3rd star | |||||||
| η2 Hyi[2] | 蛇腹四 | Shéfùsì | 4th star | |||||||
| 蛇首 | Shéshǒu | Snake's Head | α Hyi[2] | 蛇尾一 | Shéshǒuyī | 1st star | ||||
| 附白 | Fùbái | White Patches Nearby | ||||||||
| γ Hyi[2] | 附白一 | Fùbáiyī | 1st star | |||||||
| κ Hyi[2] | 附白二 | Fùbáièr | 2nd star |