darioanderle wrote:

>
> Hi Bill,
>
> I have read that there are a complete ancient star catalogue ( as
> Almagest of Ptolemy) also in China with more than 200 constellations
> and 28 zodiacal constellations.

The ancient chinese "star figures" were asterisms rather than
constellations: they were small and numerous, and there were fairly
large areas of the sky havning no such asterisms. The "28 zodiacal
constellations" we call "lunar mansions" or "lunar stations". The
lunar mansions actually predated the zodiacal constellations, for
one simple reason: it's easy to watch the moon move along the stars
in the sky; to do the same with the sun is impossible. The idea
behind the lunar masnions was that they should mark approximate
lunar positions for consecutive days. There were varieties of
lunar mansions in China, India and Arabia, each having 27 or 28
"stations". Allen's classic book "Star Names, their Lore and Meaning"
has a charpter in the beginning describing this.

> There is the possibility to put this in guide?

It would probably be possible but hardly useful. The chinese didn't
give figures for RA/Decl or some equivalent, but instead supplied
verbal descriptions of the approximate positions. Since Guide is
most certainly unable to decipher these verbal descriptions, they
must somehow be converted to coordinates first, and these coordinates
will be taken from some more modern star catalog. And then one could
use that more modern catalog anyway instead....

> Where we can find this ancient star catalogue?

Dunno -- why don't you consult that book where you read this? Perhaps
it says something about where to find it. Of course one could travel
to various museums in China and examine old manuscripts, but then you'd
have to learn classic Chinese first.... :-)

> Dario

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