I/362 Hipparchus's Lost Star Catalogue (1/2 reconstructed) (Hoffmann, 2017)
Hipparchs Himmelsglobus.
Ein Bindeglied in der babylonisch-griechischen Astrometrie?
Hoffmann S.M.
<Hipparchs Himmelsglobus (2017)>
=2024yCat.1362....0H 2024yCat.1362....0H
=2017hihi.book.....H 2017hihi.book.....H
ADC_Keywords: Historical catalog ; Positional data
Keywords: stars - history and philosophy - Hipparchus
Abstract:
Susanne M. Hoffmann reconstructed the not preserved celestial globe
(and star catalogue) of ancient Hipparchus of Nicaea digitally. She
investigated the data (celestial coordinates) on this globe and traced
their sources. By means of error analysis, visualizing, mapping, and
correlation plots she examined the potential origin of the Hipparchian
star coordinates (or some of them) in observations of earlier Greek or
Babylonian data. As preserved by Ptolemy (Almagest) and Pliny the
Elder, Hipparchus is famous for his exact observations but he does, of
course, also rely on older data - e.g. especially elaborated by
Ptolemy's discussion of precession.
Description:
Reconstruction of the lost star catalogue of Hipparchus of Nicaea (2nd
century BCE). This is the data underlaying the visualisations in the
book (2017hihi.book.....H 2017hihi.book.....H). Data given in three formats.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
hipplo.dat 726 783 Hipparchus's Lost Star Catalogue
(hippCatallRawbb.csv) (25/08/2026 vercion)
hipplpr.dat 476 430 Hipparchus's Lost Star Catalogue
(hippCat_byHIP.csv) (25/08/2026 vercion)
hippcat2.dat 221 82 Hipparchus's Lost Star Catalogue
(HippCat2constDefsmh2024_)
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See also:
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-18683-8 : Hipparchs Himmelsglobus
Byte-by-byte Description of file: hipplo.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 3 I3 --- IDinHipp [1/878] My identifier (number)
5- 25 A21 --- Const Constellation name
27-211 A185 --- starName Star name
213-272 A60 --- Manitius Manitius star identifier
274-280 A7 --- HR HR number or NGC 869 or NGC 884
282-288 A7 --- HIP HIP number or NGC 869 or NGC 884
290-292 A3 --- HippAdd1 Hipparchus's style: any additional data
point he gives in text, e.g.
simultaneously rising/setting
zodiac sign
294-297 F4.1 --- HippAdd2 ? Simultaneously rising/setting ecliptic
degree within the sign
299-303 F5.1 --- HippAdd3 ? Combined ecliptic degree of
simultaneous rising/setting
305-610 A306 --- simCulmSign Hipparchus's style: with risings,
settings and transits, he always gives
the simultaneously culminating zodiac
sign (if this column contains a number,
it is a right ascension hour given
in his text)
612-618 A7 --- simCulmDeg The degree within the zodiac sign (if he
gives a RA hour, this is a RA min)
620-635 A16 --- culmNum Zodiac sign and degree combined to
ecliptic longitude
637-653 A17 deg RAhipp Right ascension given by Hipparchus
(127 BCE) or "no RA"
655-671 A17 deg DEhipp Declination given by Hipparchus
(127 BCE) or "no DEC"
673-726 A54 --- Source Reference, where in Hipparchus's text
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: hipplpr.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 3 I3 --- Id [1/430] Identifier
5- 11 A7 --- HIP HIP number or NGC 869 or NGC 884
13 I1 --- Nmentions [1/7] Number of mentions
15-388 A374 --- StarNames Star names
390-442 A53 --- Const Constellation name
444-476 A33 --- IDinHipp IDinHipp numbers, separated by coma
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: hippcat2.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 16 A16 --- Const Constellation that rises/ sets
18- 19 I2 --- ID1 [1/82] identifier of first star
21- 83 A63 --- Name1 Name/designator of first star
85-102 A18 --- Ident1 Identification of first star
104-106 I3 --- ID2 [83/164] identifier of last star
108-171 A64 --- Name2 Name/designator of last star
173-191 A19 --- Ident2 Identification of last star
193-197 F5.1 min Dur [12/424] Duration of process given by
Hipparchus
199-203 F5.1 deg lambdaC1 Ecliptic longitude that culminates
simultaneously
205-209 F5.1 deg lambdaC2 Ecliptic longitude that culminates
simultaneously
211-215 F5.1 deg lambdaH1 Ecliptic longitude that rises/sets
simultaneously
217-221 F5.1 deg lambdaH2 Ecliptic longitude that rises/sets
simultaneously
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Acknowledgements:
Susanne M. Hoffmann, susanne.m.hoffmann(at)topoi.org
History:
* 14-Nov-2024: on-line version
* 25-Aug-2026: updated hipplo.dat and hipplpr.dat tables
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 11-Nov-2024