Astronomical symbols

Not to be confused with Astrological symbols.

This excerpt from the 1833 Nautical Almanac illustrates the use of (upper left) astronomical symbols for the phases of the moon; and (right) the generic symbol for the moon and symbols for the planets and zodiacal constellations.
"Designation of celestial bodies" in a German almanac printed in 1850, with the first four asteroids ordered as planets, and the next five appended at the end[1]
Uranus
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Astronomical symbols are abstract pictorial symbols used to represent astronomical objects, theoretical constructs and observational events in European astronomy. The earliest forms of these symbols appear in Greek papyrus texts of late antiquity. The Byzantine codices in which many Greek papyrus texts were preserved continued and extended the inventory of astronomical symbols.[2][3] New symbols have been invented to represent many planets and minor planets discovered in the 18th to the 21st centuries.

These symbols were once commonly used by professional astronomers, amateur astronomers, alchemists, and astrologers. While they are still commonly used in almanacs and astrological publications, their occurrence in published research and texts on astronomy is relatively infrequent,[4] with some exceptions such as the Sun and Earth symbols appearing in astronomical constants, and certain zodiacal signs used to represent the solstices and equinoxes.

Unicode has encoded many of these symbols, mainly in the Miscellaneous Symbols,[5] Miscellaneous Symbols and Arrows,[6] Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs,[7] and Alchemical Symbols blocks.[8]

  1. ^ Encke, Johann Franz (1850). Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch für 1853 [The Berlin Astronomical Almanac for 1853] (in German). Berlin. p. VIII.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference neugebauer-1975 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference neugebauer-1987 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Pasko, Wesley Washington (1894). American dictionary of printing and bookmaking. H. Lockwood. p. 29.
  5. ^ "Miscellaneous Symbols" (PDF). unicode.org. The Unicode Consortium. 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 22, 2017. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  6. ^ "Miscellaneous Symbols and Arrows" (PDF). unicode.org. The Unicode Consortium. 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 2, 2022. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
  7. ^ "Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs" (PDF). unicode.org. The Unicode Consortium. 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  8. ^ "Alchemical Symbols" (PDF). unicode.org. The Unicode Consortium. 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 2, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2022.