Naming is important according to Dale Skran who is the author of “What’s in a Name?” in the April 2025 edition of Ad Astra magazine. Skran argues for the importance of the people who supports space exploration have a name for them that is respectable and influential to their cause (He decides on “Space Advocates”). I also believe in the ability of names to influence. Since the mapping of outer space does not have a truly official name, I came up with a name for this kind of cartography in order to make it stand out.

The word “cartography” is itself used as the general name of the field of study that creates maps of all kinds. However, most of these maps are 2 dimensional and the techniques in general cartography focuses on their 2D nature. However, I think that mapping outer space, while a part of general cartography, has different challenges and needs. It therefore needs different solutions and methods. This should put it in a corner of cartography that reserved for it alone and this requires that it has its own label or name. There are several names that are already associated with the cartography of stars but each have a problem with being applied to the mapping of outer space.

Maps of Constellations and generally of the stars as they appear on the sky are mostly just called “star maps”. They are flat 2D maps and show the stars as arranged according to their up and down positions (Declination) and left or right positions (Right Ascension). However, as everyone knows, the stars are far away from us in the sky and each one has a different distance or 3D component. The sky maps that are in atlases of the constellations do not show this because few people beside a few professional astronomers, science fiction writers and space war game enthusiasts are interested (And then, those last two aren’t that interested). By the way, this branch of Cartography is called Uranography (or sky writing).

Despite science fiction writers not being all that interested in 3D star maps (SF books almost never have maps), they have come up with the idea of something called “stellar cartography” in many of their SF world stories. It is what people in these worlds call the making of space maps. But, the name given to that field is, I think, incomplete as to what it should cover.

Calling a map of a planet and its moons “stellar cartography” does not really fit everything in the field it is labeling. An interstellar map is going to have more than just stars on it. It will have planets and moons and gaseous nebulas and lots and lots of empty space on it. So, it seems to me that using the word “stellar” to label this field does not consider all of the different aspects of mapping the 3-D universe.

There are a couple other names that have been used but are taken for other areas -

There is the name “astrocartography”. However it is strongly associated with astrology and someone has trademarked it.

The name “astrography” is also used sometimes. But, it is the traditionally common name for the field or area of astro-photography.

There is one name which I almost forgot because there is only one example (that I know) of it. The name is “astrometrics” which fans of Star Trek knows. I believe the name was first used in Star Trek: Voyager. In previous Star Trek shows the name “stellar cartography” had been used and I could not find an official reason for the change, although it seems to be about the nature of the science it represents. Anyway, in real life there is Astrometry. Astrometry is the study of how stars move and has been around for a long time. The word “astrometrics” is almost the same as “astrometry” and means the same.

None of the more common names for the mapping of outer space fits completely. So this is when I came up with “astrocartics” and here is what it means:

Astro - Usually means “star” but some dictionaries give it a second meaning of “outer space”. That second meaning allows it to be applied to everything in space.

Cart - This is from the archaic word “carte” which means chart or paper. I added “ics” from the Greek suffix which means “aspects of” in order to better denote a field. The word “astronautics” has a similar structure.

There we have it - ASTROCARTICS - The field of study of maps of outer space and everything in it that requires you to apply its 3-D aspect. From this word I named my blog and business - Astrocartics Lab.

None of what I wrote here may go any further than my maps. But thank you for your interest.