Musca in Chinese astronomy

The modern constellation Musca 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 Bee (蜜蜂, Mìfēng) and Sea and Mountain (海山, Hǎishān).

The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is 苍蝇座 (cāng ying zuò), meaning "the housefly constellation".

Stars

The map of Chinese constellation in constellation Musca area consists of:

Four SymbolsMansion (Chinese name)RomanizationTranslationAsterisms (Chinese name)RomanizationTranslationWestern star nameChinese star nameRomanizationTranslation
- 近南極星區 (non-mansions) Jìnnánjíxīngōu (non-mansions) The Southern Asterisms (non-mansions) 蜜蜂 Mìfēng Bee
β Mus[2]蜜蜂一Mìfēngyī1st star
α Mus[2]蜜蜂二Mìfēngèr2nd star
δ Mus[3]蜜蜂四Mìfēngsì4th star
海山HǎishānSea and Mountain[4]λ Mus海山六Hǎishānliù6th star

See also

References
  1. Sun, Xiaochun (1997). Helaine Selin (ed.). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 910. ISBN 0-7923-4066-3.
  2. (in Chinese) AEEA (Activities of Exhibition and Education in Astronomy) 天文教育資訊網 2006 年 7 月 29 日
  3. (in Chinese) 夢之大地 @ 國立成功大學 WebBBS DreamLand @ National Cheng Kung University WebBBS System Archived 2011-09-02 at the Wayback Machine
  4. (in Chinese) AEEA (Activities of Exhibition and Education in Astronomy) 天文教育資訊網 2006 年 7 月 28 日
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