All Skies Encyclopaedia

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We collate and collect the data on cultural names of stars and constellations in order to keep their heritage and distribute the knowledge about them beyond their culture of origin. For the same reason, the IAU policy of naming stars aims at the conscious inclusion of all cultures and to enrich the names used in astrophysics with names from all cultures and not only the commonly used Latin, Arabic and Greek ones.

About

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This encyclopaedia serves as a container for many illustrated dictionaries of indigenous sky cultures - past and present ones. It is a knowledge base created in the framework of an independent research project (partially) funded by the Austrian Academy of Science (Planetarium Babylonicum 2.0 embeded in the ASE), linked to Stellarium, and a working tool used by the Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The IAU-Catalog of Star Names is a living document displayed on the WGSN's website. These modern star names are used in research papers; they are supposed to be a convention for global communication undertaken in English, and can, of course, only represent a subset of all existing names: This star catalog can only have one name per star in order to reduce confusion. Yet, the IAU wants to preserve all other cultural names for the same star, and the names of the IAU-Catalog of Star Name will never replace the names of local traditions and cultural heritage. Therefore, we create this encyclopaedia.

In June 2025, the IAU WGSN adopted the star names: Bodu (帛度) Tusizuo Ramus Deltoton (Δελτωτόν) Newly adopted in 2025: Alfarasalkamil (الفرس الكامل) Honores Kaffalmusalsala (كفّ المسلسة) Paradys Rasalnaqa Udkadua Heng (衡) Kui (奎) Kulou (库楼) Shimu (豕目) Quadrans

How to cite this encyclopaedia

This example highlights where you find the information on authors and of the specific page you cite and the date of the version.

This encyclopaedia is created by researchers who should be acknowledged: CC-BY licence, see footer.

There are two versions of citation:

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Citation Form

[Author Name] [date/ year], [Title of Page (entry)], in: All Skies Encyclopaedia

About IAU WGSN

Astronomy is a rather old science practiced by all cultures on Earth. Therefore, modern astronomy & astrophysics for a long time hesitated to name stars at all. For any bright (naked eye) star, there are different names in all cultures. It was only because of the nomenclature of variable stars (they are named with a number and the constellation name) and research on variables as an emerging field in the early 20th century that the young IAU in the 1920s aimed to define the names and boundaries of constellations officially, globally binding for use in international communication in research. However, back then, they did not officially define any star names. Only in the early 2000s with yet another emerging field in astronomy, i.e. the research on extrasolar planets, the necessity for global agreements on “scientific names” for stars evolved. These are the names that shall be used in research papers – but of course, all planetariums, school teachers and hobby astronomers will (hopefully) keep their local traditions in addition. We encourage everybody to keep their own cultural heritage!

As a newly established working group of the IAU (established only in 2016) we have developed two branches: The branch of research on cultural heritage and historical names for the bright stars with which we now aim to name the bright stars (facing a lot of cultural struggles, as we want to include everybody and don’t want to be intrusive), and the other branch of naming faint stars (invisible to the naked eye observer) with all sorts of names suggested by the public – which can be names of local cultures, global pop culture or anything else…

As we are a rather young working group within the IAU and still in the process of updating our terms of reference while we are faced with new suggestions, it may take a while until a specific star is named.

Who is the IAU?

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) was established in 1919 as a reaction to the obstacles astronomy and astrophysics had experienced during World War I. Astronomy is such a small field of research that success depends on global collaboration: see, there are billions of people on Earth but only roughly 10000 astronomers. To overcome political and military constrains, the IAU was built as a global astronomers' network.

One of the most important duties of the IAU is, thus, to set the framework and "common language" of astronomy. In modern science, these standards are, of course, the units used for measurements, the frames of reference (e.g. when exactly is equinox: when the first edge or the middle or the last contact point of the Sun crossed the equator?), and the nomenclature for science. The Working Groups on the names of small bodies of the solar system, on landscape features of other planets, etc. as well as our Working Group on Star Names are all independent groups of researchers of the appropriate fields, aiming to generate standards that fit the needs of astrophysics.

The IAU-Catalog of Star Names is a list of names to be used in astrophysics. Although WGSN aims to increase diversity of cultures in the names for science use, the IAU-CSN can (necessarily) not consist of all cultural names that are used (e.g. because all cultures have a name for Vega and only one name is used in astrophysics research papers), the IAU aims to acknowledge and recognize the names in this encyclopaedia.

Is the information in this encyclopaedia reliable?

The information presented in this encyclopaedia is 100% human-generated (not AI-generated) and entered by a selected group of researchers to the best of their knowledge (like in books). Researchers of astronomy collaborate in the framework of the International Astronomical Union. When we enter the information here, we refer to reliable researchers' scientific publications and explicitly give references.

Due to copyright issues, we cannot copy all books. However, we will summarize the information and refer to the original publication(s), where you can read all arguments in their completeness.

Basic Guideline

Tree of Categories (first draft 2024)

1. The Encyclopaedia compiles published research comprensively. It is not a means to publish new ideas. However, it might be a means to published more images, colour images, animated images, movies, and other material that could not be published in the original research papers.
2. Sources (published research) are linked by the authors.
3. Each entry in this encyclopaedia must have at least three categories for
   1. the geographical region on Earth
   2. the language of origin
   3. the nature of celestial object or phaenomenon behind the name.