Honores Friderici

Honores Friderici in Bode (1801), highlighting within the historical boundaries by WGSN.

This obsolete constellation was invented in France, but became more famous after a renaming in Prussia. In both cases, the constellation depicts some symbols of honour and admiration for the contemporary ruler. The Latin term "Honores" means honour. As a political constellation, it became obsolete with the global standardization of constellations by the IAU in the 1920s.

Etymology and History

Bode's creation

The young mathematician Johann E. Bode (1747-1826) named a constellation in honour of the Prussian king in German "Friedrichsehre", which can be translated as "honour of Frederick", the deceased king of Prussia. In Bode's last atlas, the Uranographia (1801), the constellation is depicted

Transformation and Variants

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  Constellation "Friedrichsehre" as drawn by Bode (1782).

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  Bode (1782) star catalogue in a later edition (1805) where "Friedrichsehre" is written at the wrong position.

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  Bode's constellation "Honores Fridericis" 1782 and 1801 mapped to the Stellarium star chart (SMH 2025).

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  Bode 1782, map of Pegasus with the area between Lac and And unnamed and the hand of Andromeda drawn as described in the Almagest (not further east as in the same atlas, Andromeda-map - where he squeezed in Honores Fridericis).

IAU Working Group Star Names

The name was discussed and approved by the IAU WGSN in 202x. As this star is already named ..., the WGSN chose ... (not to apply/ to apply the name to a neighbouring star/ to ...) in the IAU-CSN.

Reference

• References (general)
• References (early modern)
• Ian Ridpath's website (Star Tales )