![]() ![]() ![]() Readers acquainted with the impressive accomplishments of the Hipparcos satellite mission (S&T: July 1997, page 28) will know that the enormous number of highly accurate stellar positions, unbiased magnitude measurements, and greatly improved parallaxes and proper motion determinations would make it possible to produce an atlas like never produced before. MSA is 90 percent complete to magnitude 10.5. At most places in the sky, it reaches to 9th magnitude or a little fainter. The latter, with 332,556 stars, is based on the old BD, SBD, and CoD star catalogs and suffers from the omissions, lapses, and sudden changes in limiting magnitude common to the older surveys. Its closest rival and probably best-known predecessor, Uranometria 2000.0, never really presents a challenge. The subtitle within each volume, "An All-Sky Atlas Comprising One Million Stars to Visual Magnitude Eleven from the Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues and Ten Thousand Nonstellar Objects," makes it clear that the Millennium Star Atlas (hereafter MSA) is an atlas of a new dimension. From the stunning first appearance of the three dark blue volumes lettered in gold to the many checks and tests that I subsequently made, this atlas has impressed me immensely. To say I was not disappointed would be a huge understatement: the Millennium Star Atlas is, simply put, magnificent. Retrieved from Īs a frequent user of star charts, had been looking forward to receiving this latest entry into the somewhat crowded field of sky atlases. MLA style: "Millennium Star Atlas." The Free Library. ![]()
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