Chinese star maps

Chinese star maps (Chinese: s 星图, t 星圖, xīngtú) are usually directional or graphical representations of Chinese astronomical alignments. Throughout the history of China, numerous star maps have been recorded. This page is intended to list or show the best available version of each star map. Star catalogs are also listed. For academic purposes, related star maps found in East Asia outside China are also listed.

List of star maps

See also

References

External links

List of Japanese star charts from 17th–19th century and their storage locations. Also listed are some copies of Chinese star maps

Star chart

A star chart or star map is a map of the night sky. Astronomers divide these into grids to use them more easily. They are used to identify and locate astronomical objects such as stars, constellations and galaxies. They have been used for human navigation since time immemorial. Note that a star chart differs from an astronomical catalog, which is a listing or tabulation of astronomical objects for a particular purpose. Tools utilizing a star chart include the astrolabe and the planisphere.

History

Prehistory

The oldest known star chart may be a carved ivory Mammoth tusk that was discovered in Germany in 1979. This artifact is 32,500 years old and has a carving that resembles the constellation Orion. A drawing on the wall of the Lascaux caves in France has a graphical representation of the Pleiades open cluster of stars. This is dated from 33,000 to 10,000 years ago. Researcher Michael A. Rappenglueck has suggested that a panel in the same caves depicting a charging bison, a man with a bird's head and the head of a bird on top of a piece of wood, together may depict the summer triangle, which at the time was a circumpolar formation. Another star chart panel, created more than 21,000 years ago, was found in the La Tête du Lion grotto. The bovine in this panel may represent the constellation Taurus, with a pattern representing the Pleiades just above it. The Nebra sky disk, a 30 cm wide bronze disk dated to 1600 BC, bears gold symbols generally interpreted as a sun or full moon, a lunar crescent, several stars including the Pleiades cluster and possibly the Milky Way.

Star map (disambiguation)

Star map may refer to:

See also

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by LucasArts. Written by Drew Karpyshyn, the soundtrack for the game was composed by Jeremy Soule. It was released for the Xbox on July 15, 2003, for Microsoft Windows on November 19, 2003, on September 7, 2004 for Mac OS X, and on May 30, 2013 for iOS iPad, which was later updated on December 19, 2013 for iPhone and iPod Touch and on the December 23, 2014 on Google Play for Android devices. The Xbox version is playable on Xbox 360 via the latter's Backward Compatibility feature.

The sequel, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, was developed by Obsidian Entertainment at BioWare's suggestion as BioWare wanted to focus on their own intellectual properties.

Gameplay

Players choose from three basic character classes at the beginning of the game, and later choose from three Jedi subclasses. Beyond class, a character has "skills" stats, tiered "feats", and later on, tiered Force powers, similar to magic spells in fantasy games. Feats and Force powers are unlocked every level-up, while the player is given skill points to distribute among their skills every level.