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Research Article

Identification of stars in Sŏng-Gyŏng

AHN Sanghyun1 · PARK Changbom1 · YU Kyung Loh2

1 Department of Astronomy, Seoul National University, 2 Department of Earth Science, Seoul National University

Published: January 1996 · Vol. 18 · pp. 3-57
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Abstract

We have identified the stars listed in the Korean star catalog, Sŏng-Gyŏng(星鏡), which was published by a Korean astronomer Nam Pyŏng-gil in 1861. The catalog lists positions and magnitudes of traditional 1319 stars and additional 130 stars near the South Celestial Pole. For identification, positions and magnitudes of these stars are compared with those in modern catalogs and atlases such as the Bright Stars Catalog, Becvar's atlas, etc. Comparison is made at the epoch of 1861 to which positions of stars in modern catalogs are corrected by taking into account the precession and the proper motion. We have been able to identify 1380(95.2%) stars. We have also examined the previous works by Han Wook(韓旭), Tsuchihashi(土橋), and Yi Shih-t'ung(伊世同). It is found that Han has mis-identified roughly 15% of stars in Sŏng-Gyŏng in addition to typographical errors in his identification list. Tsuchihashi and Yi Shih-t'ung's identification of stars in Ch'in-ting i-hsiang k'ao-ch'eng(欽定儀象考成), a Chinese star catalog published in 1845, is found to also contain 27 mis-identifications and 16 probable mis-identifications. Our results show that the mean positional error of Sŏng-Gyŏng is 2~3 minutes of arc except for 6th magnitude stars, for which it amounts to 9'. The positional error tends to increase at low declination zones. The magnitude system of Sŏng-Gyŏng is calibrated against the modern visual magnitude system. The magnitudes of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 in Sŏng-Gyŏng are found to correspond to visual magnitudes of 0.4±0.8, 2.2±0.6, 3.2±0.7, 4.1±0.6, 4.8±0.6, and 5.4±0.6, respectively. This closely conforms to the traditional oriental stellar magnitude system.