RASC World Asterisms Project: 

Update: 12 September 2025

An asterism is a star or stars that have been identified, named, and usually related to a story. The people
of the world come from a variety of social, educational, and cultural backgrounds. This means that even
though they are looking up at exactly the same stars that you are, they see different patterns than you.
Even within your own culture there will be differences. People have used the sky as:

• A calendar, and/or
• A divination system, and/or
• A navigational tool, and/or
• A weather prediction system, and/or
• A place to honor:
  • Their deities
  • Their ancestors, or
  • Their culture.

This is a practice that continues to this day.

This World Asterisms Project is a living project started in June 2021 by the Inclusivity and Diversity
Committee of the RASC as a celebration of the sky cultures of the world: It continues to grow as the
process of naming the stars above is an ongoing process. It is also growing as ethnoastronomers and
researchers investigate old records and interview elders and recover previously lost sky cultures. The
World Asterisms Project has so far examined over 590 of the world’s cultures and recorded over 15,000
asterisms and over 1,600 names of the Sun, Moon, and Planets.

We are stewards of these records and are using the “Two Eyes Seeing” approach pioneered by members
of our Halifax Centre of the RASC in their ongoing partnership with the Mi’kmaq people to recover their
sky lore: the shared perspectives of astronomers and knowledge keepers. We are doing our best to
avoid exonyms and use the names these people use for themselves. We identify the asterisms here and
whenever possible direct people to representatives of the cultures involved for information on the sky
stories or dream lines related to those asterisms.

This project has six parts which you can download below:

1. Volume One is the World Asterism Project Handbook that lists the more than 15,000 asterisms
   alphabetically by subject so that you can see how these subjects cross cultures. Whenever possible we
   describe the star patterns in detail, describe the history behind it when we can, list all the variations in
   spelling that we have encountered, and list all the names and spelling in the language of the people
   when possible. We identify the people who first recorded or named these asterisms when possible.
2. Volume Two is the World Asterisms Project List which lists the more than 15,000 asterisms with their
   exact location in the sky (right ascension and declination) with some basic notes on the stars involved.
   This is provided in both PDF and Excel format so that you can search the lists and create your own lists.
3. Volume Three is the World Asterisms Project Sky Cultures Resource List which identifies all the sky
   cultures that we’ve examined, gives their location in the world, and lists all resources available which
   can be used to learn more about them.
4. Volume Four is the World Asterisms Project Milky Way Names List which lists more than 400 names of
   the Milky Way from various cultures.
5. Volume Five is the World Asterisms Project Solar System Objects Handbook which lists over 1,600 names
   of the Sun, Moon, and Planets in our solar system. This was added to the project in September 2022.
6. Volume Six is the World Asterisms Project Solar System Objects List in both PDF table and Excel
   spreadsheet format.

This is a work in progress as we add new discoveries and update current ones. It is our intention to
periodically update these volumes on this webpage as they continue to grow. We have also created a
World Asterisms Project Google Drive for researchers involved in this project as partners and
supporters. In this drive we keep the current drafts, shared asterism files, and a “new” page which
describes current work. If you are interested in joining our team, contact us and we can add you to the
researchers who have access to those lists. If you have any questions, suggestions, or corrections, please
contact us and we’d be happy to assist you. This information is being provided free to all, but we
encourage you to donate to the RASC to support our work.

If you'd like to contact us, our email is: worldasterismsproject@rasc.ca

Charles Ennis, President, Sunshine Coast RASC