Carte du Ciel

Carte du Ciel ("Map of the Sky") was an international project to map the positions of millions of stars — that is to say, of all stars to the 11th or 12th magnitude. In English, the project was sometimes known as the Astrographic Chart.

Results

Decades of labour were expended internationally before the project was superseded by modern astronomical techniques. The project was never completed, although a catalogue was published in 1958.

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One problem was that the work took much longer than expected. For instance, the Algiers Observatory, which was the most active in the project, did not finish its allotted work until 1919. As originally envisaged, the project was meant to have taken only 10 to 15 years.

Related Topics:
Algiers Observatory - 1919

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A more serious problem was that while French astronomers were preoccupied with this project, which required steady, methodical labor rather than creativity, in other parts of the world like the United States astrophysics was becoming far more important than astrometry. As a result, French astronomy fell behind and lagged for decades.

Related Topics:
United States - Astrophysics - Astrometry

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Although the project did result in the discovery of some double stars and stars with high proper motion, it is a fair assessment to say that the results were not commensurate with the vast amount of time and effort expended.

Related Topics:
Double star - Proper motion

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The laborious work once performed by the female "computers" is today done by electronic computers. Inexpensive software packages for home computers enable any amateur astronomer to determine precise positions for every star in an image in a fraction of a second.

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