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![]() I'm having trouble finding a suitable program, from the huge selection of "planetarium" software out there, which will help me identify stars that could correspond to a set of rather ancient names found in Vedic texts. There is a strong tradition about these names, but no reliable evidence that what these names signify today are the same as what they did long ago. What is known is the following: 1. An initial set of 27 asterisms were named for a lunar calendar based on the 27+ day sidereal period. (Later a vestigial 28th name was added.) That is, the moon "moved" from one asterism to the next roughly on every solar day, so somewhat equal spacing is implied. 2. These asterisms lie close to or on the ecliptic: basically, the band that can be occluded by the moon. Of course, exceptions are allowed if there's no suitable star within the band but a nice bright star nearby. (I'm no astronomer, but I believe Betelgeuse could be an example of this.) 3. The names are invariably listed in a specific order, i.e. always starting with the same name, and where the lists vary, the new names are unique and not transpositions. There is a tradition as to the direction in which these names circle the ecliptic, but as this is an exercise in letting the texts "speak for themselves", there is no prejudice against the "wrong way around the sky". 4. There is some internal evidence from the names themselves. (a) Some names are singular, some are plural, and some specifically mean a pair. The indefinite plural probably means a relatively tight group of fainter stars where there isn't a suitably bright star in the vicinity. (b) Three pairs of sequential names are prefixed with adjectives meaning "earlier" and "later" (or "prior" and "posterior"), suggesting proximity. Can anyone suggest software with suitable features to analyse the problem of finding suitable sets of stars (with their modern names)? For completeness, the list looks like this, in terms of the information in (4) above, with 'P' standing for the indefinite (ie. 3+) plural: 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, P, P, Early 2, Later 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, Early P, Later P, [28th here], 1, 1, 1, Early P, Later P, 1, 2, P The insertion point of the 28th could correspond to a relatively largish gap. Thanks! |
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