• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.199-226
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• 2008

We investigate astronomical materials listed in the book of Bibliographie Coreenne written by Maurice Courant. He classified ancient Korean books into nine Divisions (部) and thirty six Classes (類), and published them as three volumes (ranging from 1894 to 1896) and one supplement (in 1901). In total, 3,821 books including astronomical ones are listed together with information on physical size, possessional place, bibliographical note, and so forth. Although this book is an essential one in the field of Korea bibliography and contains many astronomical materials such as Cheon-Mun-Ryu-Cho 天文類抄, Si-Heon-Seo 時憲書, and Cheon-Sang-Yeol-Cha-Bun-Ya-Ji-Do 天象列次分野之圖, it has not been well known to the public nor to astronomical society. Of 3,821 catalogues, we found that about 50 Items (種) are related to astronomy or astrology, and verified that most of them are located in the Kyujanggak Royal Library 奎章閣. We also found an unknown astronomical chart, Hon-Cheon-Chong-Seong-Yeol-Cha-Bun-Ya-Ji-Do 渾天總星列次分野之圖. Because those astronomical materials are not well known to international astronomical community and there have been few studies on the materials in Korea, we here introduce and review them, particularly with the astronomical viewpoint.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.141-151
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• 2003

In this study the writer would like to study the art of navigation in the Era of Silla. For the purpose of this study, the writer studied ship's log book of Ennin's Diary, the ancient ship's structures of Korean, Chinese, Japanese, winds and ocean currents around Korean Peninsular which effect the navigation of sailing ship, and ancient reference books and materials. The result of this study. in the ship's structure in the Era of Silla. bottom structure is considered flat and V-Shaped type, and sailing ship had anchor, sail, considerable deckhouse, transverse bulkhead. And the ship's main materials of sailing ship was wood. partially used irons in the panting structures. In the art of navigation, navigators used winds, ocean current, anchor, sail, depth and color of sea water, lights, ballast. Especially navigators used astrologers and geomancers for astronomical observation, weather forecast, natural phenomena.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.129-139
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• 2010

The Cowherd Star and the Weaving Maid Star have been famous stars in East Asian countries. Nowadays Altair is defined to be the Cowherd Star in public materials including science books, mass media, public outreach programs, and movies played in public planetariums and science museums. However, in astronomical books and star-charts in history, the Cowherd Big Star (牽牛大星) has been known to be Dabih or $\beta$ Cap in the constellation Capricorn, and the asterism Cowherd consists of six stars including Dabih. Since the same title is given to the different objects simultaneously, considerable misunderstanding and confusion among the public have occurred. In this paper we consider this problem in two aspects. One aspect is which star has been defined to be the Cowherd Star in ancient literatures; the other is which stars were regarded as the Cowherd or the Cowherd Star in the historical records of occultation or conjunction in History of Koryo, Annals of the Choson Dynasty, and Daily Records of Royal Secretariat of the Choson Dynasty. As a result, we see that Altair has been regarded as the Cowherd Star in folklore and literature, but Dabih has been defined to be the Cowherd Big Star in astronomical works. An explanation proposed by previous researchers on the reason why such double meanings have been appeared is introduced. In the explanation, the fact that the Altair was defined as the Cowherd Star in ancient times had not been handed over properly, and the name of Cowherd was later put to the Dabih and its surrounding five stars to form one of 28 lunar lodges. Based upon these facts, we suggest the following ideas: (1) Altair should be introduced to be the Cowherd Star in public-friendly programs, and Dabih should be noticed to be the Cowherd Big Star in the field of history of astronomy. Dabih should be added as the astronomical Cowherd Big Star in academic books such as a dictionary of astronomical terminology. (2) The Korean pronunciation for Altair should be al-tear instead of al-tairu in accordance with the definition in the astronomical terminology dictionary compiled by the Korean Astronomical Society.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.49.1-49.1
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• 2017

Comets are one of the most primordial solar system objects that hold the information of the early days of solar system formation inside their nuclei. Orbiting the Sun, they spew such ancient materials that have been buried for many years, creating dust and gas comae. Cometary dust grains absorb and scatter sunlight radiating the continuous light, while gas molecules form the line emissions. Eachof the comets has its own light patterns, which depends on the physical and chemical properties of the dust and gas components. In this regard, spectropolarimetrycan be a powerful tool to study the properties of cometary constituents free from contamination of each other. This methodology offers a series of information on the polarization degrees of the dust and gas components as well as on wavelength dependence of the polarization degree and polarization angle of cometary dust simultaneously. Herein, we will report the results of the spectropolarimetric study of comet 2P/Encke, which is one of the well-known objects for its shortest orbital period and its prominent aging signals. We performed a spectropolarimetric observation of comet 2P/Encke in its inbound orbit using the Higashi-Hiroshima Optical and Near-Infrared Camera (HONIR) at the Higashi-Hiroshima Observatory, Japan, on UT 2017 February 21 at high phase angle of =75.7 deg. Ourstudy of this interesting comet is the first and only one done through spectropolarimetry in a referred publication. We will discuss the most recent polarimetric results of our study in terms of 2P/Encke' scurrent evolutionary status.