stellar cartography n.

5th February, 1883. [...] Mr. R. C. Johnson, F.R.A.S., read a short paper on ‘The Application of Photography to Stellar Cartography.’

Now ready, second edition…. Charts of the Constellations…. Surely this is the very luxury of stellar cartography.

I’m sorry, sir, but Stellar Cartography has requested a communications blackout while they run an experiment. [Ibid.] Well, I know this is all pretty dry stuff. Stellar cartography isn’t everybody’s cup of tea.

INT. STELLAR CARTOGRAPHY…. A room filled with exotic-looking devices, sensors, and computers which handle the enormous task of tracking the ship’s position in space.

In Stellar Cartography, Captain Picard and Commander Data investigate an interspatial nexus.

Reed smiled. ‘It’s a course change, Ben. One that’ll take us to a planet known as Nicanthus Prime in Prodigion’s stellar cartography files. Mind you, I’m not sure who gave it that name or even who originally mapped the sector in question, but—’

The tedium of hours spent mapping lifeless nebulae down in Stellar Cartography will melt away as we weather winter storms and head up the Thames to accept the Queen’s scarf as a trophy!

‘Thought you might help us out with a little stellar cartography problem.’ ‘Help you I can, but pay me you must,’ the little man said, his long pointed ears flapping in anticipation.

Rosse smiled before answering. ‘When the HPG network collapsed, the virus responsible for its collapse did something unexpected. It deleted Wyatt from the stellar cartography atlases in hundreds of thousands of databases—including ComStar’s own maps. Thus, the star disappeared.’

He’s logged for an inspection tour of navigation and stellar cartography at oh-nine-thirty tomorrow. He will probably also ask—no, demand that I accompany him. I can’t be with him and in his quarters at the same time. And I can’t refuse to go with him, because then he might go back to his quarters and find me there.

Kerra sat, a student again in stellar cartography just as in the Jedi academy. Only this was a lesson no Jedi Knight ever had—from a teacher none would suffer to live. And yet she was spellbound. The stars above had meaning now, painted in colors and outlined. There was Chelloa, where she’d arrived. There was the winding path to Darkknell. And there was the refugees’ flight path, leading through Byllura to Syned. Symbols hovered in the air, marking Arkadia’s best guesses at who controlled what.

‘You’ll never guess, it wasn’t obvious at first, but I figured it out because of all the things that Riohon has been teaching me about stellar cartography and different notation systems.’ ‘Is it a star map?’ I squint, trying to see a constellation. ‘No, no. It’s a stellar classification system.’