New Skyculture: Tibetan Lunar Mansions

[gzotti]

Description

My own attempt at ethnoastronomy.
Mansion figures as asterisms, stick figures as found in Tibet.
(Unfortunately no help/guidance/confirmation in Tibet, so there may be errors!)
I mix in the Zodiacal constellations also recognized in Tibetan culture.
Also added a few well-known constellations for easier orientation.

Fixes # (issue)

Screenshots (if appropriate):

Type of change

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)
• This change requires a documentation update
• Housekeeping

How Has This Been Tested?

Test Configuration:

• Operating system: Windows 11
• Graphics Card: irrelevant

Checklist:

• My code follows the code style of this project.
• I have performed a self-review of my own code
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• I have made corresponding changes to the documentation (header file)
• I have updated the respective chapter in the Stellarium User Guide
• My changes generate no new warnings
• I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works
• New and existing unit tests pass locally with my changes
• Any dependent changes have been merged and published in downstream modules

[github-actions]

Great PR! Please pay attention to the following items before merging:

Files matching skycultures/**:

• Did you remember to update po/stellarium-skycultures/POFILES.in file respectively to changes in sky cultures?
• Did you remember to update skycultures/CMakeLists.txt and skycultures/YOUR-SKYCULTURE-FOLDER/CMakeLists.txt files respectively to changes in sky cultures?
• Did you remember to update util/skycultures/po4a.config file respectively to changes in sky cultures?
• Did you remember to define classification parameter in sky cultures (see info.ini file)?
• Did you remember to define license parameter in sky cultures (see info.ini file)?
• Did you remember to define region parameter in sky culture (see info.ini file)?

This is an automatically generated QA checklist based on modified files.

[Atque]

Why are the main figures used as asterisms? Wouldn't it be more reasonable to use them as constellations and completely drop the Western constellations? Most sky cultures don't use them as a reference.

[gzotti]

The Tibetans also know the 12 Zodiacal constellations. On the Stag Phu platform, these are depicted figuratively (not as stick figures) in the 12 outer segments, although in the image (based on a snapshot of an image-based model) they are hard to see. If I had nothing else to do in my life I could extract the figures from my original photos and use them as constellation art, but for now our default figures will have to suffice. Therefore we need both those. Unfortunately there was no information about other constellations. To make life easier for users who just want to orient themselves, I show a few constellation figures known to average amateurs.

The Lunar Mansions are an overlapping group of figures. For those, Stellarium has introduced the Asterism class.
In our long-term plans both Lunar mansions and Zodiacal figures (in whatever the respective culture makes of them) could be classified as somewhat privileged figures.

The "new" part of this SC is the Lunar Mansions, shown mixed with the well-known Zodiacal figures. It can be discussed whether the SC should be renamed to just "Tibetan". But it would be great to have a knowing expert on Tibetan "astro science" work over all this.

[sushoff]

sorry, but your last reply sounds as if the SC is highly incomplete and the knowledge not secured. Why, then, do you think it should be published in Stellarium? It sounds to me as if the better option would be to call for help on the common "history of astronomy"-mailing lists and on conferences ... and then publish it in a proper (peer-reviewed) way, as all the other historical sky cultures are.

[gzotti]

We have had several obviously incomplete SCs for years now. This here has two complete figure sets, Zodiac (the exact identification in Tibet is not available from the local experts, but the pictures are just the usual 12) + Lunar mansions (available as unidentified geometrical or even just "topological" stick figures from the emblem of the official keepers of the Tibetan calendar). The figures are my best guess on the actual stars of which only the very large figure is questionable for me, while about 25 figures should be at least almost correct. The description includes a notice of likely incompleteness and a call for help. We also have introduced a few "comparative" SC sets, so mixing figures is not something totally new. For the purists' taste I could omit the currently unnamed "guidance" constellations which are provided for the sake of simpler orientation. But also such "modern overlays for guidance" could be desired by SC researchers.
If somebody, e.g. a native Tibetan expert exiled in India, knows more, we can improve. If somebody provides a complete plausible or even "official" version, I will be more than happy to replace this version. But given what little practical information seems to be available on this SC, I don't have high hopes for a fast update. (Possibly also here the figures, once depicted in a book, have been copied only from book to book and forgotten in the sky.)

[sushoff]

it's not about the incompleteness: most historical facts are incomplete. it's about the unfinished state of the work. Why don't you asks peers first? The call for help should come before the publication.

[gzotti]

"Unfinished" and "incomplete" are synonymous for me. My hope is that peers may eventually turn up when this is out, and it should still appear "later in 2023". But please PM me with your peer suggestions.

[sushoff]

I think, there is a difference between software (that should be published in an early state to allow other people to help) and datasets that should be published only with some guarantees, e.g. for not raw data like Stellarium Sky Cultures, that you did your best to achieve the result: of course, there will be mistakes (human) and incompleteness of knowledge (by definition). But when you start the publication process by saying that youneed help because you have never presented a draft anywhere (as poster or conference), never discussed with any peers and seek help just by publication, this might be a level considered to be too early in a platform like Stellarium that is used by the broad public. - in peer-reviewed scientific journals earlier levels are/ should be more frequent than here, I think. ... at least, this is what I would do

(maybe let's discuss this in our November meeting)

[sushoff]

"Unfinished" and "incomplete" are synonymous for me. My hope is that peers may eventually turn up when this is out, and it should still appear "later in 2023". But please PM me with your peer suggestions.

no: "incomplete" is a dataset of historical observations because humans might have missed an observation (for whatever reason: weather, lack of attention, preservation over time... )... but these observations are finished, they are "closed", the authors consider(ed) them as done.
"unfinished" is the work of an author who intended to do more but was not able to (e.g. the author of a novel or a musical composition who died during the process of writing)

[alex-w]

Please fix config for localization support.

Are constellation names not exists?

[gzotti]

Please fix config for localization support.

done (1 file fixed)

Are constellation names not exists?

I have found Tibetan names of the Zodiacal constellations and Lunar mansions. The 12 Zodiacal figures are our well-known (shown in the photos; some are represented slightly differently, see archer's tool or water vessel for Sgr, and Aqr. Not sure about the Cnc/frog[?]), so we can simply use the international names as translation.

I have added a few well-known stick figures for orientation in the otherwise unmarked sky away from the ecliptic. These are not Tibetan (afaics), but may help users (Tibetologists) with basic astronomical knowledge. Therefore their names are suppressed. When we receive more input from Tibetologists, this set and description will likely evolve.

[alex-w]

Please remove extra spaces in the table

[alex-w]

Or mark the text as untranslatable if it is necessary

[gzotti]

I like to align the HTML tables for maintainability. Is it acceptable to at least align the opening td, and leave space between closing td and the next opening td?

[alex-w]

It will be nightmare for translators after extract the text because every space will be added as translatable part of string

[gzotti]

Is it possible to apply "trim leading and trailing whitespace" after extraction? Makes life easier for authors and translators.

[alex-w]

For gettext/xgettext the lines with and without leading/trailing whitespaces are different lines. It’s limitation by design

[gzotti]

I have updated the first table to show what I meant with above question: Is it acceptable to at least align the opening td, and leave space between closing td and the next opening td? Or is the empty space between td elements a problem?

[alex-w]

Adding whitespaces between </td><td> are acceptable - this part was ignored by extraction tool

[alex-w]

Please fix config for localization support.

done (1 file fixed)

But the second one is not fixed still.

Are constellation names not exists?

I have found Tibetan names of the Zodiacal constellations and Lunar mansions. The 12 Zodiacal figures are our well-known (shown in the photos; some are represented slightly differently, see archer's tool or water vessel for Sgr, and Aqr. Not sure about the Cnc/frog[?]), so we can simply use the international names as translation.

I have added a few well-known stick figures for orientation in the otherwise unmarked sky away from the ecliptic. These are not Tibetan (afaics), but may help users (Tibetologists) with basic astronomical knowledge. Therefore their names are suppressed. When we receive more input from Tibetologists, this set and description will likely evolve.

OK

[alex-w]

But the second one is not fixed still.

Which one? constellation_names.eng.fab has no new translatables.

The file po/stellarium-skycultures/POTFILES.in should be updated (constellation_names.eng.fab for Tibetan SC need to add too for correct filling synonyms).

The command make stellarium-pot (or make stellarium-pot-skycultures) is broken now due wrong path in config

[github-actions]

Hello @gzotti!

Please check the fresh version (development snapshot) of Stellarium:
https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium-data/releases/tag/weekly-snapshot

[github-actions]

Hello @gzotti!

Please check the latest stable version of Stellarium:
https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium/releases/latest