RASC World Asterisms Project: 

Update: 15 March 2024

An asterism is a star or stars that have been identified and named. The people of the world come from a variety of social, educational, and cultural backgrounds. This means that even though they are looking up at exactly the same stars that you are, they see different patterns than you. Even within your own culture there will be differences. People have used the sky as:

• A calendar, and/or
• A divination system, and/or
• A navigational tool, and/or
• A weather prediction system, and/or
• A place to honor:
  • Their deities
  • Their ancestors, or
  • Their culture.

This is a practice that continues to this day.

This World Asterisms Project is a living project started in June 2021 by the Inclusivity and Diversity Committee of the RASC as a celebration of the sky cultures of the world: It continues to grow as the process of naming the stars above is an ongoing process. It is also growing as ethnoastronomers and researchers investigate old records and interview elders and recover previously lost sky cultures. The World Asterisms Project has so far examined over 570 of the world’s cultures and recorded over 13,396 asterisms including 454 Milky Way names and 2,652 telescopic asterisms. Additionally we have collected 1,618 names for the Sun, Moon, and planets. So the grand total is 15,014 names.

We are stewards of these records and are using the “Two Eyes Seeing” approach pioneered by members of our Halifax Centre of the RASC in their ongoing partnership with the Mi’kmaq people to recover their sky lore: the shared perspectives of astronomers and knowledge keepers. We are doing our best to avoid exonyms and use the names these people use for themselves. We are identifying the asterisms here and whenever possible directing people to representatives of the cultures involved for information on the sky stories or dream lines related to those asterisms.

This project has six parts which you can download below:

1. Volume One is the World Asterism Handbook that lists these asterisms alphabetically by subject so that you can see how these subjects cross cultures. Whenever possible we describe the star patterns in detail, describe the history behind it when we can, list all the variations in spelling that we have encountered, and list all the names and spelling in the language of the people when possible. We identify the people who first recorded or named these asterisms when possible.
2. Volume Two is the World Asterisms List which lists these asterisms with their exact location in the sky (right ascension and declination) with some basic notes on the stars involved. This is provided in both PDF and Excel format so that you can search the lists and create your own lists. Appendix Two is the Asterisms in Constellations List, which is in PDF format and lists the number of asterisms associated to each of the IAU constellations.
3. Volume Three is the World Asterisms Sky Cultures Resource List which identifies all the sky cultures that we’ve examined, gives their location in the world, and lists all resources available which can be used to learn more about them.
4. Volume Four is the World Asterisms Project Milky Way Names List which lists 390 of the names of our galaxy found in the sky cultures of the world. This is provided in both PDF and Excel spreadsheet format.
5. Volume Five is the World Asterisms Project Solar System Objects Handbook which lists all of the names of the Sun, the Moon, and the planets found in the sky cultures of the world.
6. Volume Six is the World Asterisms Project Solar System Objects List. This is provided in both PDF and Excel formats.

This is a work in progress as we add new discoveries and update current ones. It is our intention to periodically update these volumes on this webpage as they continue to grow. We have also created a World Asterisms Project Google Drive for researchers involved in this project as partners and supporters. In this drive we keep the current drafts, shared asterism files, and a “new” page which describes current work. If you are interested in joining our team, contact us and we can add you to the researchers who have access to those lists. If you have any questions, suggestions, or corrections, please contact us and we’d be happy to assist you. This information is being provided free to all, but we encourage you to donate to the RASC to support our work.

If you'd like to contact us, our email is: worldasterismsproject@rasc.ca

—Charles Ennis