Tucana in Chinese astronomy

The modern constellation Tucana 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 as one of the 23 Southern Asterisms (近南極星區, Jìnnánjíxīngōu) under the name Crane (鶴, Hè) and Bird's Beak (鳥喙, Niǎohuì).

The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is 杜鵑座 (dù juān zuò), meaning "the cuckoo constellation".

Stars

The map of Chinese constellation in constellation Tucana 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)	鳥喙	Niǎohuì	Bird's Beak
							α Tuc[2]	鳥喙一	Niǎohuìyī	1st star
							γ Tuc	鳥喙二	Niǎohuìèr	2nd star
							HD 224361[3]	鳥喙三	Niǎohuìsān	3rd star
							β^1 Tuc[2]	鳥喙四	Niǎohuìsì	4th star
							ρ Tuc	鳥喙五	Niǎohuìwǔ	5th star
							ζ Tuc[2]	鳥喙六	Niǎohuìliù	6th star
							ε Tuc[2]	鳥喙七	Niǎohuìqī	7th star
							η Tuc	鳥喙增一	Niǎohuìzēngyī	1st additional star
				鶴	Hè	Crane	δ Tuc[2]	鶴五	Hèwǔ	5th star

See also

• Chinese astronomy
• Traditional Chinese star names
• Chinese constellations

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 30 日 Archived 2011-05-22 at the Wayback Machine
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

External links

• 香港太空館研究資源
  • 中國星區、星官及星名英譯表
  • 天象文學
• 台灣自然科學博物館天文教育資訊網
  • 中國古天文
  • 中國古代的星象系統