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Astronomical naming conventions

In ancient times, only the Sun and Moon, a few stars, and the most easily visible planets had names. Over the last few hundred years, the number of identified astronomical objects has risen from hundreds to over a billion, and more are discovered every year. Astronomers need to be able to assign systematic designations to unambiguously identify all of these objects, and at the same time give names to the most interesting objects, and where relevant, features of those objects.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the recognized authority in astronomy for assigning designations to celestial bodies such as stars, planets, and minor planets, including any surface features on them. In response to the need for unambiguous names for astronomical objects, it has created a number of systematic naming systems for objects of various sorts.

Stars
There are no more than a few thousand stars that appear sufficiently bright in Earth's sky to be visible to the naked eye. This represents the number of stars available to be named by ancient cultures. The upper boundary to what is physiologically possible to be seen with the unaided eye is an apparent magnitude of 6, or about ten thousand stars. With the advent of the increased light-gathering abilities of the telescope, many more stars became visible, far too many to all be given names. The earliest naming system which is still popular is the Bayer designation using the name of constellations to identify the stars within them.

The IAU is the only internationally recognized authority for assigning astronomical designations to celestial objects and surface features on them. The purpose of this is to ensure that names assigned are unambiguous. There have been many historical star catalogues, and new star catalogues are set up on a regular basis as new sky surveys are performed. All designations of objects in recent star catalogues start with an "initialism", which is kept globally unique by the IAU. Different star catalogues then have different naming conventions for what goes after the initialism, but modern catalogs tend to follow a set of generic rules for the data formats used.

The IAU does not recognize the commercial practice of selling fictitious star names by commercial star-naming companies.

Proper names
There are about 300 to 350 stars with traditional or historical proper names. They tend to be the brightest stars in the sky and are often the most prominent ones of the constellation. Examples are Betelgeuse, Rigel and Vega. Most such names are derived from the Arabic language (see List of Arabic star names § History of Arabic star names).

Stars may have multiple proper names, as many different cultures named them independently. Polaris, for example, has also been known by the names Alruccabah, Angel Stern, Cynosura, the Lodestar, Mismar, Navigatoria, Phoenice, the Pole Star, the Star of Arcady, Tramontana and Yilduz at various times and places by different cultures in human history.

In 2016, the IAU organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN (on 30 June and 20 July 2016) together with names of stars adopted by the IAU Executive Committee Working Group on Public Naming of Planets and Planetary Satellites during the 2015 NameExoWorlds campaign and recognized by the WGSN. Further batches of names were approved on 21 August 2016, 12 September 2016 and 5 October 2016. These were listed in a table included in the WGSN's second bulletin issued in October 2016. The next additions were done on 1 February, 30 June, 5 September and 19 November 2017, and on 6 June 2018. All are included on the current List of IAU-approved Star Names.

The star nearest to Earth is typically referred to simply as "the Sun" or its equivalent in the language being used (for instance, if two astronomers were speaking French, they would call it le Soleil). However, it is usually called by its Latin name, Sol, in science fiction.

Named after people
There are about two dozen stars such as Barnard's Star and Kapteyn's Star that have historic names and which were named in honor after astronomers. As a result of the NameExoWorlds campaign in December 2015 the IAU approved the names Cervantes (honoring the writer Miguel de Cervantes) and Copernicus (honoring the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus) for the stars Mu Arae and 55 Cancri A, respectively. In July 2016, the IAU WGSN approved the name Cor Caroli (Latin for 'heart of Charles') for the star Alpha Canum Venaticorum, so named in honour of King Charles I of England by Sir Charles Scarborough, his physician. In 2019, IAU held the NameExoWorlds campaign.

Catalogues
With the advent of the increased light-gathering abilities of the telescope, many more stars became visible, far too many to all be given names. Instead, they have designations assigned to them by a variety of different star catalogues. Older catalogues either assigned an arbitrary number to each object, or used a simple systematic naming scheme based on the constellation the star lies in, like the older Ptolemy's Almagest in Greek from 150 and Al-Sufi's Book of Fixed Stars in Arabic from 964. The variety of sky catalogues now in use means that most bright stars currently have multiple designations.

In 1540, the Italian astronomer Piccolomini released the book De le Stelle Fisse (On the Fixed Stars) which include star maps of 47 constellations where he numbered the stars in magnitude order using latin letters.

Bayer designation
The Bayer designations of about 1,500 brightest stars were first published in 1603. In this list, a star is identified by a lower-case letter of the Greek alphabet, followed by the Latin name of its parent constellation. The Bayer designation uses the possessive form of a constellation's name, which in almost every case ends in is, i or ae; um if the constellation's name is plural (see genitive case for constellations). In addition, a three-letter abbreviation is often used. Examples include Alpha Andromedae (α And) in the constellation of Andromeda, Alpha Centauri (α Cen), in the constellation Centaurus, Alpha Crucis (α Cru) and Beta Crucis (β Cru), the two brightest stars in the constellation Crux, the Southern Cross, Epsilon Carinae (ε Car) in Carina, Lambda Scorpii (λ Sco) in Scorpius and Sigma Sagittarii (σ Sgr) in Sagittarius. After all twenty-four Greek letters have been assigned, upper and lower case Latin letters are used, such as for A Centauri (A Cen), D Centauri (D Cen), G Scorpii (G Sco), P Cygni (P Cyg), b Sagittarii (b Sgr), d Centauri (d Cen) and s Carinae (s Car).

As the resolving power of telescopes increased, numerous objects that were thought to be a single object were found to be optical star systems that were too closely spaced in the sky to be discriminated by the human eye. This led to a third iteration, where numeric superscripts were added to distinguish those previously unresolved stars. Examples include Theta Sagittarii (θ Sgr) later distinguished as Theta¹ Sagittarii (θ¹ Sgr) and Theta² Sagittarii (θ² Sgr), each being their own (physical) star system with two and three stars, respectively.

Flamsteed designation
Flamsteed designations consist of a number and the Latin genitive of the constellation the star lies in. Examples include 51 Pegasi and 61 Cygni. About 2,500 stars are catalogued. They are commonly used when no Bayer designation exists, or when the Bayer designation uses numeric superscripts such as in Rho¹ Cancri. In this case, the simpler Flamsteed designation, 55 Cancri, is often preferred.

Modern catalogues
Most modern catalogues are generated by computers, using high-resolution, high-sensitivity telescopes, and as a result describe very large numbers of objects. For example, the Guide Star Catalog II has entries on over 998 million distinct astronomical objects. Objects in these catalogs are typically located with very high resolution, and assign designations to these objects based on their position in the sky. An example of such a designation is SDSSp J153259.96−003944.1, where the initialism SDSSp indicates that the designation is from the "Sloan Digital Sky Survey preliminary objects", and the other characters indicate celestial coordinates (epoch 'J', right ascension 15$h$32$m$59.96$s$, declination −00°39′44.1″).

Variable stars
Variable stars are assigned designations in a variable star scheme that is based on a variation of the Bayer designation format, with an identifying label preceding the Latin genitive of the name of the constellation in which the star lies. Such designations mark them as variable stars. Examples include R Cygni, RR Lyrae, and V1331 Cygni. The International Astronomical Union delegates the task to the Sternberg Astronomical Institute in Moscow, Russia.

Pulsars
Pulsars such as PSR J0737-3039, are designated with a "PSR" prefix, that stands for Pulsating Source of Radio. The prefix is followed by the pulsar's right ascension and degrees of declination. The right ascension is also prefixed with a "J" (Julian epoch) or a "B" (Besselian Epochs) used prior to 1993, as in PSR B1257+12.

Black holes
Black holes have no consistent naming conventions. Supermassive black holes receive the designation of the galaxy whose core they reside in. Examples are NGC 4261, NGC 4151 and M31, which derive their designation from the New General Catalogue and the list of Messier objects.

Other black holes, such as Cygnus X-1 – a highly likely stellar black hole, are cataloged by their constellation and the order in which they were discovered. A large number of black holes are designated by their position in the sky and prefixed with the instrument or survey that discovered them. Examples are SDSS J0100+2802 (where SDSS stands for Sloan Digital Sky Survey), and RX J1131−1231, observed by the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Supernovae
Supernova discoveries are reported to the IAU's Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and are automatically given a provisional designation based on the co-ordinates of the discovery. Historically, when supernovae are identified as belonging to a "type", CBAT has also published circulars with assigned year–letter designations, and discovery details. A supernova's permanent designation is formed by the standard prefix "SN", the year of discovery, and a suffix composed of one to three letters of the Latin alphabet. The first 26 supernovae of the year receive a capital letter from A to Z. Subsequent supernovae of that year are designated with pairs of lower-case letters from "aa" to "az", and then continuing with "ba" until "zz". Then come "aaa", "aab", and so on (this first occurred in 2015-2016). For example, the prominent SN 1987A, was the first one to be observed in 1987, while SN 2023ixf was one of the brightest ever observed in recent times. Several thousand supernovae have been reported since 1885. In recent years, several supernova discovery projects have retained their more distant supernova discoveries for in-house follow-up, and not reported them to CBAT. Starting in 2015, CBAT has scaled back its efforts to publish assigned designations of typed supernovae: By September 2014, CBAT had published names and details of 100 supernovae discovered in that year. By September 2015, CBAT had only published names of 20 supernovae discovered in that year. The Astronomer's Telegram provides some surrogate services independent from CBAT.

Four historical supernovae are known simply by the year they occurred: SN 1006 (the brightest stellar event ever recorded), SN 1054 (of which the remnant is the Crab Nebula and the Crab Pulsar), SN 1572 (Tycho's Nova), and SN 1604 (Kepler's Star).

Since 1885, the letter-suffixes are explicitly assigned, regardless whether only one supernova is detected during the entire year (although this has not occurred since 1947). Driven by advances in technology and increases in observation time in the early 21st century, hundreds of supernovae were reported every year to the IAU, with more than 500 catalogued in 2007. Since then, the number of newly discovered supernovae has increased to thousands per year, for example almost 16,000 supernovae observations were reported in 2019, more than 2,000 of which were named by CBAT.

Constellations
The sky was divided into constellations by historic astronomers, according to perceived patterns in the sky. At first, only the shapes of the patterns were defined, and the names and numbers of constellations varied from one star map to another. Despite being scientifically meaningless, they do provide useful reference points in the sky for human beings, including astronomers. In 1930, the boundaries of these constellations were fixed by Eugène Joseph Delporte and adopted by the IAU, so that now every point on the celestial sphere belongs to a particular constellation.

Galaxies
Like stars, most galaxies do not have names. There are a few exceptions such as the Andromeda Galaxy, the Whirlpool Galaxy, and others, but most simply have a catalog number.

In the 19th century, the exact nature of galaxies was not yet understood, and the early catalogs simply grouped together open clusters, globular clusters, nebulas, and galaxies: the Messier catalog has 110 in total. The Andromeda Galaxy is Messier object 31, or M31; the Whirlpool Galaxy is M51. The New General Catalogue (NGC, J. L. E. Dreyer 1888) was much larger and contained nearly 8,000 objects, still mixing galaxies with nebulas and star clusters.

Planets
The brightest planets in the sky have been named from ancient times. The scientific names are taken from the names given by the Romans: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Our own planet is usually named in English as Earth, or the equivalent in the language being spoken (for instance, two astronomers speaking French would call it la Terre). However, it is only recently in human history that it has been thought of as a planet. Earth, when viewed as a planet, is sometimes also called by its Latin scientific conventional name Terra, this name is especially prevalent in science fiction where the adjective "terran" is also used in the way which "Lunar" or "Jovian" is for Earth's moon or Jupiter. The Latin convention derives from the use of that language as an international scientific language by the first modern astronomers like Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton and others and was used for a long time. This is why the later discovered bodies were also named accordingly. Two more bodies that were discovered later, and considered planets when discovered, are still generally considered planets now:
 * Uranus, discovered by William Herschel in 1781
 * Neptune, discovered by Johann Gottfried Galle in 1846 (based on prediction by Urbain Le Verrier)

These were given names from Greek or Roman myth, to match the ancient planet names—but only after some controversy. For example, Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781, and originally called it Georgium Sidus (George's Star) in honour of King George III of the United Kingdom. French astronomers began calling it Herschel before German Johann Bode proposed the name Uranus, after the Greek god. The name "Uranus" did not come into common usage until around 1850.

Starting in 1801, asteroids were discovered between Mars and Jupiter. The first few (Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta) were initially considered planets. As more and more were discovered, they were soon stripped of their planetary status. On the other hand, Pluto was considered to be a planet at the time of its discovery in 1930, as it was found beyond Neptune. Following this pattern, several hypothetical bodies were given names: Vulcan for a planet within the orbit of Mercury; Phaeton for a planet between Mars and Jupiter that was believed to be the precursor of the asteroids; Themis for a moon of Saturn; and Persephone, and several other names, for a trans-Plutonian planet.

Derived from Classical mythology, these names are only considered standard in Western discussion of the planets. Astronomers in societies that have other traditional names for the planets may use those names in scientific discourse. For instance, IAU does not disapprove of astronomers discussing Jupiter in Arabic using the traditional Arabic name for the planet, المشتري Al-Mushtarīy.

Some sixty years after the discovery of Pluto, a large number of large trans-Neptunian objects began to be discovered. Under the criteria of classifying these Kuiper belt objects (KBOs), it became dubious whether Pluto would have been considered a planet had it been discovered in the 1990s. Its mass is now known to be much smaller than once thought and, with the discovery of Eris, it is simply one of the two largest known trans-Neptunian objects. In 2006, Pluto was therefore reclassified into a different class of astronomical bodies known as dwarf planets, along with Eris and others.

Exoplanets
Currently, according to the IAU, there is no agreed upon system for designating exoplanets (planets orbiting other stars). The process of naming them is organized by the IAU Executive Committee Working Group Public Naming of Planets and Planetary Satellites. The scientific nomenclature for the designations usually consists of a proper noun or abbreviation that often corresponds to the star's name, followed by a lowercase letter (starting with 'b'), like 51 Pegasi b.

The lowercase lettering style is drawn from the IAU's long-established rules for naming binary and multiple star systems. A primary star, which is brighter and typically bigger than its companion stars, is designated by a capitalized A. Its companions are labelled B, C, and so on. For example, Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, is actually a double star, consisting of the naked-eye visible Sirius A and its dim white-dwarf companion Sirius B. The first exoplanet tentatively identified around the second brightest star in the triple star system Alpha Centauri is accordingly called Alpha Centauri Bb. If an exoplanet orbits both of the stars in a binary system, its name can be, for example, Kepler-34(AB) b.

Natural satellites
Earth's natural satellite is simply known as the Moon, or the equivalent in the language being spoken (for instance, two astronomers speaking French would call it la Lune). English-language science fiction often adopts the Latin name "Luna" while using the English "Moon" as a term for natural satellites in general in order to better distinguish the wider concept from any specific example. Natural satellites of other planets are generally named after mythological figures related to their parent body's namesake, such as Phobos and Deimos, the twin sons of Ares (Mars), or the Galilean moons of Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, four consorts of Zeus (Jupiter). Satellites of Uranus are instead named after characters from works by William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope, such as Umbriel or Titania.

When natural satellites are first discovered, they are given provisional designations such as "S/2010 J 2" (the 2nd new satellite of Jupiter discovered in 2010) or "S/2003 S 1" (the 1st new satellite of Saturn discovered in 2003). The initial "S/" stands for "satellite", and distinguishes from such prefixes as "D/", "C/", and "P/", used for comets. The designation "R/" is used for planetary rings. These designations are sometimes written like "S/2003 S1", dropping the second space. The letter following the category and year identifies the planet (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune; although no occurrence of the other planets is expected, Mars and Mercury are disambiguated through the use of Hermes for the latter). Pluto was designated by P prior to its recategorization as a dwarf planet. When the object is found around a minor planet, the identifier used is the latter's number in parentheses. Thus, Dactyl, the moon of 243 Ida, was at first designated "S/1993 (243) 1". Once confirmed and named, it became (243) Ida I Dactyl. Similarly, the fourth satellite of Pluto, Kerberos, discovered after Pluto was categorized as a dwarf planet and assigned a minor planet number, was designated S/2011 (134340) 1 rather than S/2011 P 1, though the New Horizons team, who disagreed with the dwarf planet classification, used the latter.
 * H = Mercury (Hermes)
 * V = Venus
 * E = Earth
 * M = Mars
 * J = Jupiter
 * S = Saturn
 * U = Uranus
 * N = Neptune

After a few months or years, when a newly discovered satellite's existence has been confirmed and its orbit computed, a permanent name is chosen, which replaces the "S/" provisional designation. However, in the past, some satellites remained unnamed for surprisingly long periods after their discovery. See Naming of moons for a history of how some of the major satellites got their current names.

The Roman numbering system arose with the very first discovery of natural satellites other than Earth's: Galileo referred to the Galilean moons as I through IV (counting from Jupiter outward), in part to spite his rival Simon Marius, who had proposed the names now adopted, after his own proposal to name the bodies after members of the Medici family failed to win currency. Similar numbering schemes naturally arose with the discovery of moons around Saturn and Mars. Although the numbers initially designated the moons in orbital sequence, new discoveries soon failed to conform with this scheme (e.g. "Jupiter V" is Amalthea, which orbits closer to Jupiter than does Io). The unstated convention then became, at the close of the 19th century, that the numbers more or less reflected the order of discovery, except for prior historical exceptions (see the Timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their moons).

Geological and geographical features
In addition to naming planets and satellites themselves, the individual geological and geographical features such as craters, mountains, and volcanoes, on those planets and satellites also need to be named.

In the early days, only a very limited number of features could be seen on other Solar System bodies other than the Moon. Craters on the Moon could be observed with even some of the earliest telescopes, and 19th-century telescopes could make out some features on Mars. Jupiter had its famous Great Red Spot, also visible through early telescopes.

In 1919, the IAU was formed, and it appointed a committee to regularize the chaotic lunar and Martian nomenclatures then current. Much of the work was done by Mary Adela Blagg, and the report Named Lunar Formations by Blagg and Muller (1935), was the first systematic listing of lunar nomenclature. Later, "The System of Lunar Craters, quadrants I, II, III, IV" was published, under the direction of Gerard P. Kuiper. These works were adopted by the IAU and became the recognized sources for lunar nomenclature.

The Martian nomenclature was clarified in 1958, when a committee of the IAU recommended for adoption the names of 128 albedo features (bright, dark, or colored) observed through ground-based telescopes (IAU, 1960). These names were based on a system of nomenclature developed in the late 19th century by the Italian astronomer Giovanni V. Schiaparelli (1879) and expanded in the early 20th century by Eugene M. Antoniadi (1929), a Greek-born astronomer working at Meudon, France.

However, the age of space probes brought high-resolution images of various Solar System bodies, and it became necessary to propose naming standards for the features seen on them.

Minor planets
Initially, the names given to minor planets followed the same pattern as the other planets: names from Greek or Roman myths, with a preference for female names. With the discovery in 1898 of the first body found to cross the orbit of Mars, a different choice was deemed appropriate, and 433 Eros was chosen. This started a pattern of female names for main-belt bodies and male names for those with unusual orbits.

As more and more discoveries were made over the years, this system was eventually recognized as being inadequate and a new one was devised. Currently, the responsibility for naming minor planets lies with the Working Group Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN, originally the Committee Small Bodies Nomenclature, CSBN, and before that the Minor Planet Names Committee, MPNC), which is composed of 15 members, 11 of whom are voting members, while the other four are representatives for the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature, the Minor Planet Center, as well as the IAU President and General Secretary. Minor planets observed over at least two nights and which cannot be identified with an existing celestial object, are initially assigned provisional designations (containing the year and the sequential order of discovery within that year) by the Minor Planet Center. When enough observations of the same object are obtained to calculate a reliable orbit, a sequential number is assigned by the Minor Planet Center to the minor-planet designation.

After the designation is assigned, the discoverer is given an opportunity to propose a name, which, if accepted by the IAU, replaces the provisional designation. Thus for instance, was given the name Ixion and is now called 28978 Ixion. The name becomes official after its publication in the WGSBN Bulletin with a brief citation explaining its significance. This may be a few years after the initial sighting, or in the case of "lost" asteroids, it may take several decades before they are spotted again and finally assigned a designation. If a minor planet remains unnamed ten years after it has been given a designation, the right to name it is given also to identifiers of the various apparitions of the object, to discoverers at apparitions other than the official one, to those whose observations contributed extensively to the orbit determination, or to representatives of the observatory at which the official discovery was made. The WGSBN has the right to act on its own in naming a minor planet, which often happens when the number assigned to the body is an integral number of thousands.

In recent years, automated search efforts such as LINEAR or LONEOS have discovered so many thousands of new asteroids that the WGSBN has officially limited naming to a maximum of two names per discoverer every two months. Thus, the overwhelming majority of asteroids currently discovered are not assigned formal names.

Under IAU rules, names must be pronounceable, preferably one word (such as 5535 Annefrank), although exceptions are possible (such as 9007 James Bond), and since 1982, names are limited to a maximum of 16 characters, including spaces and hyphens. (This rule was violated once for the comet-asteroid 4015 Wilson–Harrington, whose name has 17 characters; this is because it had already been named as a comet before being rediscovered as an asteroid.) Letters with diacritics are accepted, although in English the diacritical marks are usually omitted in everyday usage. 4090 Říšehvězd is an asteroid with the most diacritics (four). Military and political leaders are unsuitable unless they have been dead for at least 100 years. Names of pet animals are discouraged, but there are some from the past. Names of people, companies or products known only for success in business are not accepted, nor are citations that resemble advertising.

Whimsical names can be used for relatively ordinary asteroids (such as 26858 Misterrogers or 274301 Wikipedia), but those belonging to certain dynamical groups are expected to follow more strictly defined naming schemes.
 * Near-Earth objects (such as 1862 Apollo) receive mythological names, except those associated with creation or the underworld, while distant Amor asteroid (with perihelion larger than 1.15 au) may receive non-mythical names.
 * Jupiter trojans (objects in a 1:1 orbital resonance with Jupiter) are named for characters of the legendary Trojan War. Asteroids at Lagrangian point are named after Greek characters (such as 588 Achilles), whilst asteroids at  are named after Trojans (such as 884 Priamus). Small Jupiter trojans with absolute magnitudes fainter than 12 (in the V band) can be named for Olympic athletes.
 * Centaurs (such as 2060 Chiron) crossing or approaching the orbit of a giant planet, but not in a stabilizing resonance are named for the creatures, part horse and part man, from Greek mythology.
 * Neptune trojans (objects in a 1:1 orbital resonance with Neptune, such as 385571 Otrera) are named for Amazons, with no differentiation between objects in and.
 * Plutinos (such as 90482 Orcus) are named after mythological figures associated with the underworld.
 * Other trans-Neptunian objects (such as 50000 Quaoar), including classical Kuiper belt objects, are given mythological or mythic names (not necessarily from Greek or Roman mythology), particularly those associated with creation.

Comets
The names given to comets have followed several different conventions over the past two centuries. Before any systematic naming convention was adopted, comets were named in a variety of ways. The first one to be named was "Halley's Comet" (now officially known as Comet Halley), named after Edmond Halley, who had calculated its orbit. Similarly, the second known periodic comet, Comet Encke (formally designated 2P/Encke), was named after the astronomer, Johann Franz Encke, who had calculated its orbit rather than the original discoverer of the comet, Pierre Méchain. Other comets that bore the possessive include "Biela's Comet" (3D/Biela) and "Miss Herschel's Comet" (35P/Herschel–Rigollet, or Comet Herschel–Rigollet). Most bright (non-periodic) comets were referred to as 'The Great Comet Of...' the year in which they appeared.

In the early 20th century, the convention of naming comets after their discoverers became common, and this remains today. A comet is named after its first independent discoverers, up to a maximum of three names, separated by hyphens. The IAU prefers to credit at most two discoverers, and it credits more than three discoverers only when "in rare cases where named lost comets are identified with a rediscovery that has already received a new name." In recent years, many comets have been discovered by instruments operated by large teams of astronomers, and in this case, comets may be named for the instrument (for example, Comet IRAS–Araki–Alcock (C/1983 H1) was discovered independently by the IRAS satellite and amateur astronomers Genichi Araki and George Alcock). Comet 105P/Singer Brewster, discovered by Stephen Singer-Brewster, should by rights have been named "105P/Singer-Brewster", but this could be misinterpreted as a joint discovery by two astronomers named Singer and Brewster, respectively, so the hyphen was replaced by a space. The spaces, apostrophes and other characters in discoverer names are preserved in comet names, like 32P/Comas Solà, 6P/d'Arrest, 53P/Van Biesbroeck, Comet van den Bergh (1974g), 66P/du Toit, or 57P/du Toit–Neujmin–Delporte.

Until 1994, the systematic naming of comets (the "Old Style") involved first giving them a provisional designation of the year of their discovery followed by a lower case letter indicating its order of discovery in that year (e.g. the first Comet Bennett is 1969i, the 9th comet discovered in 1969). In 1987, more than 26 comets were discovered, so the alphabet was used again with a "1" subscript, very much like what is still done with asteroids (an example is Comet Skorichenko–George, 1989e1). The record year was 1989, which went as high as 1989h1. Once an orbit had been established, the comet was given a permanent designation in order of time of perihelion passage, consisting of the year followed by a Roman numeral. For example, Comet Bennett (1969i) became 1970 II.

Increasing numbers of comet discoveries made this procedure difficult to operate, and in 2003 the IAU's Committee on Small Body Nomenclature approved a new naming system, and in its 1994 General Assembly the IAU approved a new designation system that entered into force in 1995 January 1. Comets are now designated by the year of their discovery followed by a letter indicating the half-month of the discovery (A denotes the first half of January, B denotes the second half of January, C denotes the first half of February, D denotes the second half of February, and so on) and a number indicating the order of discovery. To exemplify, the fourth comet discovered in the second half of February 2006 would be designated 2006 D4. "I" and "Z" are not used when describing the half of a particular month the comet was discovered. Prefixes are also added to indicate the nature of the comet, with P/ indicating a periodic comet, C/ indicating a non-periodic comet, X/ indicating a comet for which no reliable orbit could be calculated (typically comets described in historical chronicles), D/ indicating a comet that has broken up or been lost, and A/ indicating an object at first thought to be a comet but later reclassified as an asteroid (C/2017 U1 became A/2017 U1, then finally 1I/ʻOumuamua). Objects on hyperbolic orbits that do not show cometary activity also receive an A/ designation (example: A/2018 C2, which became C/2018 C2 (Lemmon) when cometary activity was detected). Periodic comets also have a number indicating the order of their discovery. Thus Bennett's Comet has the systematic designation C/1969 Y1. Halley's Comet, the first comet to be identified as periodic, has the systematic name 1P/1682 Q1. Comet Hale–Bopp's systematic name is C/1995 O1. The famous Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 was the ninth periodic comet jointly discovered by Carolyn Shoemaker, Eugene Shoemaker, and David Levy (the Shoemaker–Levy team has also discovered four non-periodic comets interspersed with the periodic ones), but its systematic name is D/1993 F2 (it was discovered in 1993 and the prefix "D/" is applied, because it was observed to crash into Jupiter).

Some comets were first spotted as minor planets, and received a temporary designation accordingly before cometary activity was later discovered. This is the reason for such comets as (Catalina 2) or  (Spacewatch–LINEAR). The MPECs and HTML version of IAUCs, because of their telegraphic style, "flatten out" the subscripts, but the PDF version of IAUCs and some other sources such as the Yamamoto Circulars and the Kometnyj Tsirkular use them.

title: Astronomical naming conventions


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Sandy Powell (comedian)

Albert Arthur Powell MBE (30 January 1900 – 26 June 1982), known as Sandy Powell, was an English comedian best known for his radio work of the 1930s and for his catchphrase "Can you hear me, mother?" He first said this in a theatre in Coventry. Fifty years later, deciding he needed a rest from the business (he planned a cruise around the world with his wife, Kay White), he again said it in a Coventry theatre, for the last time.

Early life
Born in Rotherham, Yorkshire, England, in 1900, he attended White's school in Masbrough, where he helped his mother (stage name of Lily le Maine) to put on a marionette show. At age nine, she put him in a velvet suit with a lace collar and he went on stage and sang. After he left school he became a music hall entertainer, often wearing a kilt in the guise of a Scottish comedian. During this part of his career he was associated with the singer Gracie Fields, and released several records where he collaborated with her.

Stage and recording
He made a total of eighty-five 78 rpm records between 1929 and 1942, mostly double-sided sketches with him in various occupations. He sold seven and a half million records, earning a penny a side, so over £60,000. The first, The Lost Policeman on the cheap Broadcast label, sold almost half a million copies (he had turned down a flat fee of £60 for this), and his subsequent recordings for Broadcast and Rex were extremely popular. He said in a 1982 interview that he used his stage work to advertise the records, rather than the other way about, though it was later said of him that his records introduced him so wherever he went to put on a show, they already knew him.

Powell's stooge in his act during the 1930s was the boy soprano Jimmy Fletcher, father of the actor Gerard Fletcher, of Emmerdale, Coronation Street and other TV. From 1930 he took his own revue, Sandy Powell's Road Show, on tour – it ran for ten years and was extremely popular despite having only a handful of performers and two backdrops.

Radio and film
In the 1930s he began to work on the radio, always introducing his show with the catchphrase "Can you hear me, mother?" Powell said that the catchphrase originated on an occasion when he had dropped his script and was killing time at the microphone while rearranging the pages. It is also attributed to his mother's coercion and her hardness of hearing, during his early career. At his next booking, the theatre manager asked him to say it again as everyone was saying it now. He also appeared in a number of films during the 1930s, usually as himself. In 1939, he was voted the fifth most popular British star at the local box office.

A popular figure, he worked continually on radio, television and pantomime through the 1940s and 1950s. Aged 21 at the time, Pat Phoenix was brought in to play Sandy's wife and played four parts in the film. After that he went onto a variety tour and she came with him as his wife, earning £12 a week. He performed with his Starlight company in the Eastbourne Pier theatre for over fifteen seasons in the 1950s and 1960s, earning himself the sobriquet Mr Eastbourne, and he was still performing occasionally up to his death in 1982. Part of his act was a comedy ventriloquism act, where the dummy would fall apart. After being on stage for a few weeks with a series of awful ventriloquists, he bought a dummy himself and did his own act as a ventriloquist. When Pat Phoenix as his wife who "fed him lines" asked if the dummy could sing something, he replied "If I know it, he can sing it!" His real-life wife, Kay White, often appeared with him.

He performed twice in a Royal Variety Performance: both 1935 and 1970. In the latter he appeared with his wife performing his ventriloquist act gone-wrong.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1971 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. He was awarded the MBE in 1975.

Death
For a day or two, he thought he had bad indigestion, but it was worse than he realised and he died of a heart attack in Eastbourne on 26 June 1982, aged 82.

A pub in Powell's native Rotherham was named "The Comedian" in his honour. On 13 April 2015 a blue plaque commemorating Powell was erected by the British Music Hall Society and unveiled by the then President Roy Hudd at Powell's former home in Elms Avenue, Eastbourne.

Marriages
In 1942 he married Katie Hughes, who died in 1947. He married Kay White in 1951.

Filmography

 * The Third String (1932)
 * Can You Hear Me, Mother? (1935)
 * Soft Lights and Sweet Music (1936)
 * Leave It to Me (1937)
 * It's a Grand Old World (1937)
 * I've Got a Horse (1938)
 * Home from Home (1939)
 * All at Sea (1940)
 * Cup-tie Honeymoon (1948)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Sandy Powell (comedian)


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Hel, Poland

Hel (Hél; Hela) is a seaside resort city in Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, located on the tip of the Hel Peninsula, some 33 km from the Polish mainland.

Early developments
The territory became part of the emerging Polish state in the 10th century, under its first historic ruler Mieszko I. The Kashubian village of Hel was first mentioned in 1198 as a centre of herring trade area named Gellen. In one of the Danish chronicles of 1219 it is mentioned that a damaged ship of King Valdemar II the Victorious was set ashore on an "Island of Hel". By the 13th century the village became one of the most important trade centres of the area, competing with the nearby city of Gdańsk. It was then that the village was granted town rights by Duke Świętopełk II the Great of Pomerania. The privileges were again confirmed in 1378 when the town came under the rule of the Teutonic Order.

Initially the town was some 1.5 km from its present-day centre. It contained a church, hospital, city house, two market places, several guest houses and a small port. However, during the 15th century the peninsula started to shrink through marine erosion and soon the town was moved to a safer place. In 1417 St Peter's Church was built in the town, devoted to the patron saint of fishermen. Hel experienced a period of growth, but was later left behind by the faster-growing city of Danzig (Gdańsk). In 1440, the town joined the anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation, upon the request of which the area was re-incorporated by King Casimir IV Jagiellon into the Kingdom of Poland in 1454. The re-incorporation was confirmed in the 1466 peace treaty, when the Teutonic Knights renounced any claims to the area. In 1466 Casimir IV granted the town as a fief to the city of Gdańsk, which ended the century-long struggle for economic domination over Gdańsk Bay. In 1526 King Sigismund I the Old withdrew all privileges previously granted to Hel and sold the town and the peninsula to the city authorities of Gdańsk. Since then Hel's fate was tied to the fortunes of its bigger neighbour.

In the 17th and 18th centuries prolonged warfare and a series of natural disasters severely damaged the town. It was severely depopulated, and in 1793 it was annexed by Prussia in the Second Partition of Poland. In 1872 the government of the newly formed German Empire abolished the town rights granted to Hel six centuries previously. After that the village of Hela (as it is called in German) lost much of its significance.

Modern times

The period of decline was halted in 1893 when a fishing harbour was built in the village. It provided a shelter for fishing vessels, but also became a popular destination for weekend trips of the inhabitants of Danzig and Zoppot (Sopot). In 1896 the village was granted the status of a sea-side resort.

As a result of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles Poland was re-established as an independent nation. Hel, before the war a predominantly German village (93% in 1905 ), became again part of Poland. In 1921 a new railway was built along the peninsula connecting the town to the mainland. The authorities of the Pomeranian Voivodeship also planned to build a road to the village, but the peninsula was found too narrow at the time. Soon Hel became one of the most important tourism centres in Polish Pomerania. New suburbs of villas were built for tourists, as well as a new church, school, fishing institute and geophysical observatory. In addition, the village became one of the two main naval bases of the Polish Navy. The harbour was expanded and in 1936 the president declared the peninsula a "Fortified Area" under jurisdiction of the Polish Army. The naval base was expanded significantly and a battery of coastal artillery was built to provide cover for the military facilities. During the invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the Hel Peninsula was one of the longest-defended pockets of Polish Army resistance. Approximately 3,000 soldiers of the Coastal Defence Group (Grupa Obrony Wybrzeża) units under Kmdr Włodzimierz Steyer defended the area until 2 October 1939. Shortly before capitulation, Polish military engineers detonated a number of torpedo warheads, which separated the peninsula from the mainland transforming it into an island. Afterwards, Hel was occupied by Germany. Already in 1939, the occupiers carried out the first expulsion of Poles, who were then enslaved as forced labour of new German colonists in various places in the region. During the occupation, the Kriegsmarine used the Hel naval base to train U-boat crews. At the end of the war the village was the last part of Polish soil to be liberated: the German units encircled there only surrendered on 14 May 1945, six days after Germany had capitulated. After the war the village yet again became a naval base. In 1960 a road linking Hel with Jastarnia on the mainland was built. Three years later town rights were reintroduced. Since then the tourist industry started to recover and several hotels, guest houses and inns were built. In 1996 the Polish Navy sold all remaining parts of the peninsula to the civilian authorities and only a small naval base is there today.

The harbour now serves primarily as a yacht marina, though there are some fishing boats and ferries to Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia in the summer.

Sights and culture
Hel houses a sea life biological laboratory and there are interesting examples of naval armament and equipment exhibited throughout the town. There is popular beach along the shore between the inner and outer harbour walls, with a seal sanctuary (the Fokarium) just behind it. There is a that forms part of the National Maritime Museum, Gdańsk in an old church on the sea front.

The most easterly edge of Hel, which was once a military territory, can now be accessed by the general public making it possible to walk all the way around the peninsula.

Hel is the setting for the Polish crime series Zbrodnia (TV series) (2014–2015) "The Crime" in English.

Transport
The road leading to the town has been jokingly referred to by tourists and locals as the road as the "highway to Hel", with the local summer bus service happening to be numbered 666. However, due to criticism from religious groups over its associations with the number of the beast, the service was renumbered 669 in 2023.

Climate
Hel has an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb). Its peninsular location generates a unique climate in Poland and more similar with the northwest of Europe.

title: Hel, Poland


text:
Henry Beaufort, 2nd Earl of Somerset

Henry Beaufort, 2nd Earl of Somerset (probably 26 November 1401 – 25 November 1418) was an English nobleman who died aged 17 at the Siege of Rouen in France during the Hundred Years' War, fighting for the Lancastrian cause. As he died unmarried without issue his heir became his younger brother John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, 3rd Earl of Somerset.

Origins
He was the eldest son and heir of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset (1371-1410), the eldest of the four legitimised sons of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (a younger son of King Edward III) by his mistress Katherine Swynford. His mother was Margaret Holland (1385-1439), a daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, the son of Joan "the Fair Maid of Kent", a grand-daughter of King Edward I and wife of Edward the Black Prince (eldest brother of John of Gaunt) and mother of King Richard II

Career
Henry succeeded his father as Earl of Somerset on 16 March 1410. During his minority his mother held his lands for him until he reached the age of 15.

Death and succession
He died aged sixteen at the Siege of Rouen during the Hundred Years' War, where he fought under the command of his uncle Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter. He died unmarried and was succeeded by his younger brother John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, 3rd Earl of Somerset (1404-1444).

title: Henry Beaufort, 2nd Earl of Somerset


text:
Hel Peninsula

Hel Peninsula (Mierzeja Helska, Półwysep Helski; Hélskô Sztremlëzna; Halbinsel Hela or Putziger Nehrung) is a 35 km sand bar peninsula in northern Poland separating the Bay of Puck from the open Baltic Sea. It is located in Puck County of the Pomeranian Voivodeship.

Name
The name of the peninsula might come from either the Old Polish word hyl/hel, meaning "empty or exposed place," or the Germanic word heel, which is derived from the form of the peninsula and the fact that the area was first settled by the Goths, an East Germanic tribe.

Geography
The width of the peninsula varies from approximately 300 m near Jurata to 100 m in the most narrow part to over 3 km at the tip. Since the peninsula was formed entirely of sand, it is frequently turned into an island by winter storms. Until the 17th century, the peninsula was a chain of islands that formed a strip of land only in the summer.

A road and a railroad run along the peninsula from the mainland to the town at the furthest point, Hel, a popular tourist destination. Other towns, ports, and tourist resorts are Jurata, Jastarnia, Kuźnica, Chałupy, and Władysławowo.

Bus transport on the peninsula consists of only one route, the 666. The numbering of the route, which plays on the biblical number of the beast and the similarity of the name "Hel" to the English word "hell", raised complaints from Catholic groups which found the numbering blasphemous.

Military importance
The Hel (German: Hela) Peninsula was part of Prussia and then Germany from 1772 to 1919. After the peninsula became part of the Second Polish Republic after World War I, it acquired considerable military significance (Polish Corridor) and was turned into a fortified region, with a garrison of about 3,000. In the course of the Battle of Hel in 1939, Polish forces dynamited the peninsula at one point and turned it into an island.

During the years of German occupation of Poland (1939–1945), Hel's defenses were further expanded, and a battery of three 40.6 cm SK C/34 gun was constructed, but the guns were soon moved to the Atlantic Wall in occupied France. Hel peninsula remained in German hands until the end of World War II, when the defending forces surrendered on 14 May 1945, six days after Germany capitulated.

After the war, when the peninsula again became part of Poland, it continued to have military significance, with much of its area reserved for military use. Additional gun batteries were built in the 1940s and the 1950s. Many of the fortifications and batteries are open to tourists today, but some areas of the peninsula still belong to the Polish Armed Forces.

title: Hel Peninsula


text:
Talk:The Vicar of Dibley

A few notes.
Why is Geraldine marked as "Geraldine Kennedy"? It wasn't until the last episode that she married Harry, and even then it isn't said that she took her husband's last name. Also, where do the "nicknames" of some of the characters come from and why is Frank Pickle said to be an escaped convict? 101090ABC (talk) 09:20, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Alice and the jokes
I have corrected the assertion that Alice "never" understands the joke - she does in at least two episodes. Smurfmeister (talk) 21:40, 8 March 2013 (UTC)

Why WikiProject Buckinghamshire?
Why does the heading of this talk page say that this article is of interest to WikiProject Buckinghamshire when the article says that Dibley is set in Oxfordshire?Vorbee (talk) 20:18, 13 March 2019 (UTC) OK I have had a better look at this article and see that the series was filmed in Turville in Buckinghamshire. That does explain things. Vorbee (talk) 18:11, 14 March 2019 (UTC)

Worth mentioning French and Saunders episode?
A year before The Vicar of Dibley began, French, along with Jennifer Saunders, did a sketch in their show French and Saunders (series 4, episode 2) in which French (in character) states that she has been accepted as television's first female comedy vicar. I have no idea whether filming of "The Vicar of Dibley" was already under way by then, but could this be worthy of mention, perhaps in a trivia section? — Paul G (talk) 08:09, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Vicar of Dibley


text:
Hel

Hel or HEL may refer to:

Places

 * Hel Peninsula, on the Polish Baltic coast
 * Hel, Poland, a town on the Hel Peninsula
 * Hel Fortified Area, a fortress and naval base on the Hel peninsula
 * Helsinki Airport (IATA code HEL)
 * Hensall railway station, England (National Rail station code HEL)
 * Human Engineering Laboratory, an Army research institute that specialized in ergonomics

In science and technology

 * Hardware Emulation Layer, in integrated circuitry
 * High energy laser, a weapon
 * High energy light

In mythology and religion

 * Hel (location), a location in Norse mythology
 * Hel (mythological being), ruler of Hel, the location in Norse mythology
 * Hel, a battle-axe used by Magnus the Good of Norway

In arts and entertainment

 * Hel (band), a Swedish band
 * Hel, a character in the 1927 film Metropolis
 * Club Hel, a location in the Matrix series
 * Hel, a character in the mobile video game Fire Emblem Heroes

Other uses

 * History of the English language (education)
 * Home equity loan

title: Hel


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Korčula

Korčula (, Curzola) is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea. It has an area of 279 km2, is 46.8 km long and on average 7.8 km wide, and lies just off the Dalmatian coast. Its 15,522 inhabitants (2011) make it the second most populous Adriatic island after Krk. The population are almost entirely ethnic Croats (95.74%). The island is twinned with Rothesay in Scotland. It is known for Grk, a white wine that is only produced here and not exported due to limited production.

Geography
The island of Korčula belongs to the central Dalmatian archipelago, separated from the Pelješac peninsula by a narrow Strait of Pelješac, between 900 and 3000 m wide. It stretches in the east–west direction, in length of 47 km; on average, it is 8 km wide. With an area of 279 km2, it is the sixth largest Adriatic island. The highest peaks are Klupca, 568 m and Kom, 510 m high.

Main settlements on the island are towns of Korčula, Blato and Vela Luka. Villages along the coast are Brna, Račišće, Lumbarda and Prižba; Žrnovo, Pupnat, Smokvica and Čara are located inland. The island is divided into municipalities of Korčula, Smokvica, Blato and Lumbarda. The climate is Mediterranean; an average air temperature in January is 9.8 C and in July 26.9 C; the average annual rainfall is 1100 mm. The island is largely covered with Mediterranean flora including extensive pine forests.

The main road runs along the spine of the island connecting all settlements from Lumbarda on the eastern to Vela Luka on the western end, with the exception of Račišće, which is served by a separate road running along the northern coast. Ferries connect the town of Korčula with Orebić on the Pelješac peninsula. Another line connects Vela Luka with Split and the island of Lastovo. Fast passenger catamarans connect those two ports with Split, Dubrovnik and the islands of Hvar, Lastovo and Mljet.

Ancient history
According to legend, the island was founded by Trojan hero Aeneas or his friend Antenor.

The island was first settled by Mesolithic and Neolithic peoples. There is archaeological evidence at the sites of Vela Spila and at Jakas Cave near the village of Žrnovo. The findings at Vela Spila are on display at the Center for Culture in Vela Luka. The fate of these peoples is not known but the sites do provide a window into their way of life.

The second wave of human settlement was by Illyrians. It is believed that the Illyrians arrived to the Balkans approximately 1,000 BC. They were semi-nomadic tribal people living from agriculture. There are numerous old stone buildings and fortresses (gradine) left behind by the Illyrians.

Melaina Korkyra (Μέλαινα Κόρκυρα) was the ancient Cnidian Greek colony founded on Korčula. Greek colonists from Corfu formed a colony on the island in the 6th century B.C. The Greeks named it "Black Korkyra" after their homeland and the dense pine-woods on the island. Greek artifacts, including carved marble tombstones can be found at the local Korčula town museum.

A stone inscription found in Lumbarda (Lumbarda Psephisma) and which is the oldest written stone monument in Croatia, records that Greek settlers from Issa (Vis) founded another colony on the island in the 3rd century BC. The two communities lived peacefully until the Illyrian Wars (220 BC to 219 BC) with the Romans.

The island became part of the Roman province of Illyricum after the Illyrian Wars. Roman migration followed and Roman citizens arrived on the island. Roman villas appeared through the territory of Korčula and there is evidence of an organised agricultural exploitation of the land. There are archaeological remains of Roman Junianum on the island and old church foundations.

In 10 AD, Illyricum was split into two provinces, Pannonia and Dalmatia. Korčula became part of the ancient Roman province of Dalmatia.

Middle Ages
In the 6th century it came under Byzantine rule. The Great Migrations of the 6th and 7th centuries brought Slavic invasions into this region. Along the Dalmatian coast the Slavic peoples including the Croats poured out of the interior and seized control of the area of the Neretva Delta, as well as the island of Korčula, which protects the river mouth. The Christianisation of the Croats began in the 9th century, but the early Croatian rural inhabitants of the island may well have fully accepted Christianity only later; in the early Middle Ages the Croatian population of the island was grouped with the pagan Narentines or Neretvians, who quickly learned maritime skills in this new environment and became engaged in piracy against Venetian trade ships.

Initially, Venetian merchants were willing to pay an annual tribute to keep their shipping safe from the infamous Neretvian pirates of the Dalmatian coast. After the 9th century, the island was briefly under nominal Byzantine suzerainty. In 998 the Principality of Pagania came under Venetian control. Doge Pietro II Orseolo launched a naval expedition along the coast and assumed the title Duke of Dalmatia. Afterwards Korčula came under the control of the Great Principality of Zachlumia.

In the 12th century Korčula was conquered by a Venetian nobleman, Pepone Zorzi, and incorporated briefly into the Republic of Venice. Around this time, the local Korčula rulers began to exercise diplomacy and legislate a town charter to secure the independence of the island, particularly with regard to internal affairs, given its powerful neighbors. The brothers of Stephen Nemanja, Miroslav and Stracimir, launched an attack on the island on 10 August 1184, raiding its fertile western part. The island's inhabitants called for help from the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik), which in turn captured all of Stracimir's galleys.

The Statute of Korčula was first drafted in 1214. It guaranteed the relative autonomy of the island against her outside rulers including the semi-independent Grand Principality of Zachlumia, the Grand Principality of Serbia, the Kingdom of Hungary-Croatia and the Republics of Ragusa and Venice. Captains were created for each of the island's five settlements for organized defence. Korčula had fewer than 2,500 inhabitants at that time.

In 1221, Pope Honorius III gave the island to the Princes of Krka (the Šubić family). During the 13th century the hereditary Counts of Korčula were loosely governed in turn by the Hungarian crown and by the Republic of Genoa but also enjoyed a brief period of independence. In 1255, however, Marsilio Zorzi conquered the island's capital and razed or damaged some of its churches in the process, forcing the Counts to return to Venetian suzerainty.

What is more definite is that in 1298 the Republic of Genoa defeated Venice in the documented Battle of Curzola off the coast of Korčula and a galley commander, Marco Polo, was taken prisoner by the victors to eventually spend his time in a Genoese prison writing of his travels. However, some Italian scholars believe that he may have been captured in a minor clash near Ayas.

After the writings of Pope Martin IV in 1284 and Pope Honorius IV in 1286 to the Archbishop of Ragusa, the Archbishop installed a certain Petar as Bishop of Ston and Korčula – stacnensis ac Crozolensis. In 1291, Ivan Kručić was in Korčula's city as the Bishop of Korčula. Kručić contested his overlord, the Archbishop of Hvar, and wanted to unite Ston with his church domain. In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII finally founded the Korčula Bishopric under the Archbishopric of Ragusa. In 1333, as the Republic of Ragusa purchased Ston with Pelješac from the Serbian Empire, the suzerainty of Ston's Roman Catholic Church with the peninsula was given to the Bishopric of Korčula.

Curzola, as the Venetians called the island, surrendered to the Kingdom of Hungary in 1358 according to the Treaty of Zadar, but it surrendered to the Bosnian King Stephen Tvrtko I in the summer of 1390. However the Kingdom of Hungary restored rule of the island, and in December 1396 Croatian-Hungarian King Sigismund gave it to Đurađ II Stracimirović of the Balšić dynasty of Zeta, who kept it up to his death in 1403, when it was returned under the Hungarian crown. In 1409 it again became a part of the Republic of Venice, purchased by the neighbouring Republic of Venice in 1413–1417, it still declared itself subjected to Venice in 1420. In 1571 it defended itself so gallantly against the Ottoman attackers at the Battle of Lepanto that it obtained the designation Fidelissima from Pope Pius V.

Venetian and Austrian rule

Korčula had for years supplied the timber for the wooden walls of Venice, and had been a favourite station of her fleets. From 1776 to 1797 Korčula succeeded Hvar as the main Venetian fortified arsenal in this region. According to the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797 in which the Republic of Venice was divided between the French Republic and the Habsburg monarchy, Korčula passed on to the Habsburg monarchy.

The French Empire invaded the island in 1806, joining it to the Illyrian Provinces. The Montenegrin Forces of vladika Petar I Petrović-Njegoš conquered the island with Russian naval assistance in 1807 during his attempt to construct another Serbian Empire. The defeat of Austria however at the Battle of Wagram in 1809 had put most of the Adriatic under French control. On 4 February 1813 however, British troops and naval forces under Thomas Fremantle captured the island from the French. This short period of British rule left an important mark on the island; the new stone West quay was built, as well as a semi-circular paved terrace with stone benches on the newly built road towards Lumbarda, and a circular Martello tower, "forteca" on the St. Blaise's Hill above the town. According to the terms of the Congress of Vienna, the British left the island to the Austrian Empire in the 19th of July of 1815. Korčula accordingly became a part of the Austrian crown land of Dalmatia. From 1867, Korčula was in the Cisleithanian part of Austria-Hungary.

20th century
During the World War I, the island and other territories were promised to the Kingdom of Italy in the 1915 Treaty of London in return for Italy joining the war on the side of Great Britain and France. However, after the war, Korčula and the rest of Dalmatia became a part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in 1918. It was ruled by Italy from 1918 to 1921. It became part of the Province of Dalmatia, before becoming part of the Dubrovnik Oblast in 1922. Later, it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, known from 1929 on as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The island became part of the Littoral Banovina in 1929 and in 1939 it became a part of the autonomous Banovina of Croatia.

After the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Italy annexed the island. After the Armistice of Cassibile between Italy and the Allied powers in September 1943, it was briefly held by the Yugoslav Partisans who enjoyed considerable support in the region. Korčula was then occupied by German forces which controlled the island until their withdrawal in September 1944. With the liberation of Yugoslavia in 1945, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was formed, and Korčula became a part of the People's Republic of Croatia, one of the six Yugoslav republics. The state changed the name to Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1953, and so did the Republic to Socialist Republic of Croatia. After 1991, the island became a part of the independent Republic of Croatia.

Culture
The 17th century saw the rise of Petar Kanavelić who wrote love songs, occasional epic poems and dramas. He also translated from Italian the major poetic works of that time. He is regarded as one of the greatest Croatian writers of the 17th century. In 1673 he became the representative of the Korčula community in Venice. There is a primary school named after him in the town of Korčula.

Moreška is a traditional sword dance from the town of Korčula. It is one of the many proud traditional sword dances that are performed on the island. It arrived in Korčula around the 16th century. Korčula has a rich musical history of klape groups. Klapa is a form of a cappella style of singing. The tradition goes back centuries, but the style as we know it today, originated in the 19th century.

Korčula has a tradition of stonemasonry, which reached its peak during the rule of the Republic of Venice (1420–1797). The island also has a very strong art tradition.

Korkyra Baroque Festival
The Korkyra Baroque Festival is an annual international event, launched in 2012. The festival showcases a selection of the world's leading ensembles and soloists specialized in Baroque music. Over ten days a series of concerts and supporting events focus on Baroque music, promoting the richness of Korčula's cultural monuments and the whole town as a unique architectural treasure.

Transport

Korčula is linked to the mainland by a regular ferry service that runs between Dominče, just outside the town of Korčula and Orebić. There are numerous other local ferry services including one linking Vela Luka and Lastovo. The main Croatian ferry operator Jadrolinija runs a service linking Korčula Town with Rijeka, Split, Hvar, Mljet, Dubrovnik and (from May to September) Bari. An operator Linijska Nacionalna Plovidba runs a seasonal service linking Korčula with Drvenik.

There are also bus services that link the island to major cities on the mainland, which reach Korčula using the Orebić ferry service.

Korčula town also has mooring facilities. The western harbour gives shelter from wind though not against the bora and north-westerlies. Boat owners are advised to shift to the eastern harbour or to Luka Cove. The port is open to international seaborne traffic as a permanent port of entry; it offers all types of repairs to hulls and engines at the Brodograditelj Shipyard.

Notable residents

 * Arneri family, landowners from the 15th century, who built the Palace Arneri in the town of Korčula
 * Meri Cetinić (b. 1953), singer from Blato
 * Oliver Dragojević (1947–2018), singer from Vela Luka
 * Željko Franulović (b. 1947), tennis player, runner-up at the 1970 French Open
 * Frano Kršinić (1897–1981), sculptor, from Lumbarda
 * Boško Lozica (b. 1952), water polo player, silver medalist at the 1980 Summer Olympics
 * Sir Fitzroy Maclean, (1911–1996), soldier, writer and politician, from Scotland
 * Ivan Milat Luketa (1922–2009), painter, from Blato
 * Blessed Marija Petković (1892–1966), founder of the Daughters of Mercy Catholic order, from Blato
 * Bill Rancic (b. 1971), is a Croatian American entrepreneur who was hired by the Trump Organization at the conclusion of the first season of the reality television show, The Apprentice, and owns a villa on the island
 * Petar Šegedin (1909–1998), writer, from Žrnovo
 * Zvonimir Šeparović (1928–2022), legal scholar, former diplomat, from Blato
 * Matko Talovac (about 1400–1445), ban of Slavonia from 1435 to 1445, from the town of Korčula
 * Dinko Tomašić (1902–1975), sociologist, from Smokvica
 * Maksimilijan Vanka (1889–1963), Croatian American painter who had a home in Korčula
 * Ante Žanetić (1936–2014), Croatian football player and Olympic gold medalist, from Blato
 * Domenica Žuvela (b. 1992), singer

title: Korčula


text:
Hearts and arrows

Hearts and arrows (H&A) diamonds are precision-cut variations of the traditional 57-faceted round brilliant cut. They are cut to "ideal" proportions with good optical symmetry, polish, and a specific faceting pattern. When these factors are present, the result is a near-perfect pattern of eight symmetrical arrows when viewed from the top (crown) and eight symmetrical hearts when viewed from the bottom (pavilion).

Design factors
The original Hearts and Arrows diamonds appeared in Japan in the mid-1980s. They were cut to "ideal proportions," closely following the guidelines summarized by Marcel Tolkowsky in his 1919 book Diamond Design. These diamonds were cut with very good physical and optical symmetry to achieve an "Excellent" grade in the Japanese laboratory grading system. The faceting scheme involves prescribed lengths and ratios as well as smaller table sizes to produce the distinctive, repeatable Hearts and Arrows pattern.

Less than 1% of the world's diamonds are cut to Hearts and Arrows optical symmetry precision. This is due to the greater amount of rough diamond material that is lost during the additional polishing required to achieve this precise optical symmetry. Diamond polishers may take up to three times longer to cut diamonds to this quality, resulting in a higher waste of the original rough material. Specialized tooling, high-quality cutting wheels, and sometimes 100x magnification are used to ensure careful analysis at every production stage. Consequently, diamonds cut in this manner are more expensive than average cut diamonds.

Viewer
To see the hearts and arrows pattern in a diamond, a specially designed light-directing viewer called a hearts and arrows scope is used. This device allows the viewer to analyze the physical symmetry, contrast, and alignment of the diamond's facets by viewing the stone through both the top (crown) and bottom (pavilion). It directs white and colored light at specific angles to reflect light back from particular facets and angles of the diamond.

Certification and scientific and technical research
In the early 1990s, when hearts and arrows diamonds began to appear in America, this kind of consistent cutting was uncommon, and cut grading did not yet exist in America. The Gemological Institute of America noted several key characteristics in their report: the diamonds were extremely round, with tables measuring 55–57%, girdles that were medium or thin to medium, and excellent grades for polish and symmetry.

The Hoge Raad voor Diamant (HRD) applies objective criteria and uses an automatic measuring device developed in-house to determine whether a diamond meets the H&A standard.

The International Gemological Institute (IGI) is also one of the laboratories that certify Hearts and Arrows diamons.

The Wetenschappelijk Technisch Onderzoeks Centrum voor Diamant (WTOCD) is a scientific and technical research center for diamonds that developed proprietary software to analyze images according to the H&A guidelines set by HRD Antwerp. Based on measurements of the H&A patterns, an expert system evaluates the guidelines to deliver H&A grades.

Diamonds with a hearts and arrows cut command a price premium in the global market, reflecting the greater time needed to produce them, the greater loss of weight from the rough, and their generally better overall cut quality. This cut has also become a popular sales tool in diamond marketing. Although the hearts and arrows pattern indicates a top-tier cut, it does not always guarantee the diamond will be the most brilliant.

Labeling
There is disagreement within the diamond industry regarding which diamonds should be labeled as "hearts and arrows." Historically, the absence of an industry standard meant that different entities could classify a diamond differently—one might designate it as hearts and arrows while another might not. The term "super ideal" is commonly used to describe diamonds exhibiting perfect optical symmetry. Diamonds graded by GIA as "Excellent" in overall cut (with excellent symmetry) or by the American Gem Society as "0" (or "Ideal") typically display some form of hearts and arrows pattern when viewed through a specialized viewer, though the pattern may not be flawless. Many professionals in the industry advocate for grading the hearts and arrows pattern, reserving the label for diamonds that meet stringent criteria. They argue that mere presence of the pattern is insufficient; it must align perfectly with defined guidelines.

Generally, a "hearts and arrows" super-ideal cut diamond is defined by five main components:

 * Pavilion angle range: 40.2–41.6° (optimum 40.6–40.8°)
 * Crown angle range: 32.4–36.4° (optimum 34–35°)
 * Table size range: 53–59% (optimum 55–57%)
 * Lower girdle halves length range: 75–80% (optimum 77%)
 * Star facets length range: 40–55% (optimum 45–50%)

Currently, IGI and HRD grade diamonds for optimal hearts and arrows cut, with IGI issuing specific certificates. GIA, however, does not grade hearts and arrows cuts; instead, a GIA certificate might note "Laser Inscription: H&A," indicating that the term was inscribed on the diamond prior to grading, without implying the presence of hearts and arrows patterns as observed by GIA.

The diamond industry has yet to establish firm criteria for evaluating stones with precise hearts and arrows optical symmetry, lagging somewhat behind the latest technological advancements. For consumers seeking diamonds of this caliber, it is advisable to examine hearts and arrows images through an appropriate viewer.

title: Hearts and arrows


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Bill Berry

William Thomas Berry (born July 31, 1958) is an American musician who was the drummer for the alternative rock band R.E.M. Although best known for his economical drumming style, Berry also played other instruments, including guitar, bass guitar and piano, both for songwriting and on R.E.M. albums. In 1995, Berry suffered a cerebral aneurysm onstage and collapsed. After a successful recovery he left the music industry two years later to become a farmer, and has since maintained a low profile, making sporadic reunions with R.E.M. and appearing on other artists' recordings. His departure made him the only member of the band to not remain with them during their entire run. Berry eventually returned to the industry in 2022.

Early years (1958–1980)
William Thomas Berry was born on July 31, 1958, in Duluth, Minnesota, the fifth child of Don and Anna Berry. At the age of three, Berry moved with his family to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, where they would remain for the next seven years. In 1968, they moved again, this time to Sandusky, Ohio.

In 1972, the Berry family made their final move, to Macon, Georgia, just in time for Bill to start high school at Northeast High School. It was there that he met bass guitarist Mike Mills, and they played together in several different bands, including Shadowfax. Their first attempt at a career in music was short-lived. He and Mills decided to make money by getting day jobs. They rented an apartment on Arlington Place in Macon, and Bill landed a job at the Paragon Booking Agency next door.

Berry and Mills moved to Athens, Georgia, in late 1978, where they met Michael Stipe and Peter Buck. Prior to dropping out, Berry studied pre-law at the University of Georgia.

R.E.M. years (1980–1997)
R.E.M. was formed in 1980. In addition to his duties as a drummer, Berry contributed occasional guitar, bass, mandolin, vocals, keyboards and piano on studio tracks. In concert, he sometimes performed on bass, and supplied regular backing vocals. Berry also made notable songwriting contributions, particularly for "Everybody Hurts" and "Man on the Moon", both from Automatic for the People. Other Berry songs included "Perfect Circle", "Driver 8", "Cant Get There from Here" and "I Took Your Name". The song "Leave" was also written by Berry for R.E.M.'s album New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996), which was his last album with the band.

Berry was also responsible for toning down the lyrics of the song "Welcome to the Occupation." Stipe's original lyric was "hang your freedom fighters" which, given the Reagan administration's active support for the Nicaraguan contra "freedom fighters", sounded violent and militant, although Stipe himself countered that the line could be taken multiple ways ("hang" as in either "lynch" or "frame on a wall"). Berry's objection ultimately led the line to be changed to "hang your freedom higher."

"A lot of [Bill's] stuff is under under-known, under-appreciated, under-rated," said Mills in 2024. "He's a great singer; he comes up with some amazing melodies that I would never have thought of, and ways to sing it that I would never have thought of."

During 1984, Berry also was drummer for the impromptu Hindu Love Gods, which featured his R.E.M. bandmates Peter Buck, Mike Mills, rocker Warren Zevon, and Bryan Cook.

On-stage collapse and leaving R.E.M. (1995–1997)
On March 1, 1995, at the Patinoire Auditorium in Lausanne, Switzerland, Berry collapsed on stage during an R.E.M. show from a ruptured brain aneurysm. He recovered and rejoined the band, but left in October 1997, saying that he no longer had the drive or enjoyment level to be in the band, and that he wanted to not travel. He later explained on VH-1's Behind the Music: "I didn't wake up one day and decide, 'I just can't stand these guys anymore' or anything. I feel like I'm ready for a life change. I'm still young enough that I can do something else. I've been pounding the tubs since I was nine years old ... I'm ready to do something else."

Acquiescing to Berry's wishes, R.E.M. announced that it would reluctantly continue as a three-piece outfit. They continued to tour with several accompanying musicians, including long-time sidemen Ken Stringfellow and Scott McCaughey and employed Joey Waronker and Bill Rieflin as live drummers over the next decade.

In 2024, when asked if he regretted leaving the band, Berry said: "Of course I did. That was a weird time for me. And I made it weird for these guys too." He added that his aneurysm lowered his energy level. "I was Type A, hyperactive, until that. And I just didn’t have the drive I once did to do this. I didn't regret [leaving] at the time; I sort of regretted it a little later."

Semi-retirement (1997–2022)
Berry left the music business and became a farmer, working on his hay farm in Farmington, Georgia, near Athens in late 1997.

Prior to the group's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Berry granted his first interview in several years, discussing life after retirement. "It's a great chance to get back together and perform with R.E.M., which I always loved doing", he said.

Asked where he goes on vacations, in an interview at his home in 2019, Berry stated: "I would never go on vacation. Vacation for me is right here. I spent enough time in airports and in vans and on buses. I kind of like sitting still for a while. Still haven't grown tired of that." He ventures in to Athens to "see shows I want; I don't just go out and hang out at bars." He added: "I get into shows about 1.6 times a month: maybe not twice a month, but more than once."

Berry maintains that he never enjoyed being a drummer. "It's just not the most musical instrument. I've never written a song on a set of drums." His preferred instrument is the acoustic guitar, which (as of 2019) is something he plays every day. "I wish I'd played more of it before I retired. I've done most of my practising after I've retired. I've become a pretty good guitarist now; I wasn't then."

His musical activities after leaving R.E.M. have been sporadic, but did include recording for the Tourette Syndrome Charity Album Welcome Companions in 2000. On May 11, 2018, he performed at the Winterville Auditorium in Winterville, Georgia, as part of a quintet named Mayor Ferrelle and the Councilmen, formed by the band's vocalist and lead guitarist, city mayor Dodd Ferrelle. The other three members were John Kean, David Barbe and Adam Poulin.

Berry appeared in the 2020 Song Exploder documentary about the band's song "Losing My Religion", even playing part of his drum line from the song. In the same documentary, Peter Buck says, "There's no drummer like Bill Berry on Earth. None. I have a lot of drummer friends, and they all ask me the same thing: 'What's his secret?' And I can't tell you, because I don't know. My theory is that he uses the space between the high hat and the snare drum in a kind of disco-y way, without being too disco."

In 1999, Joey Waronker explained the process of how he learned Berry's drum parts. He had learned around fifty of R.E.M.'s songs. "I think we have about 40 that we’re rotating amongst. I had to make a book — just notes — on every song. It's really, really subtle rhythmically. There's a lot going on, and I never noticed it. I'm a drummer, and never picked up on it. I was listening to the songs, saying, 'These are definitely not straightforward.'"

Return to the music industry (2022–present)
In 2022, twenty-five years after his departure from R.E.M., Berry formed a new supergroup called The Bad Ends with Athens- and Atlanta-based musicians Mike Mantione of Five Eight on guitar and vocals, Dave Domizi on bass and vocals, Geoff Melkonian on keyboards and vocals, Christian Lopez on guitars and mandolin, and Berry on drums and backing vocals. The origins of the group are a chance meeting between Mike Mantione and Berry on a street in Athens. Mantione had recently been described by Peter Buck as "the unsung hero of Athens rock and roll" and offered Berry "an opportunity to play in the game again", as in playing music professionally.

The group have released one single and video called "All Your Friends Are Dying" and performed a hometown show on November 27, 2022. They released their debut album, The Power and the Glory, on January 20, 2023.

On February 8, 2024, Berry joined the Michael Shannon / Jason Narducy band on stage at the 40 Watt Club in Athens to perform the piano part in "Perfect Circle", the song that R.E.M. had resumed performing and dedicated to Berry after he left the band in the mid 1990s.

Personal life
On March 22, 1986, Berry married girlfriend Mari Berry. They divorced in 1997. When crack began to infiltrate Athens in the early 1990s, the couple moved to nearby Farmington. "In 1988, I decided that I would broaden my portfolio, which was pretty slim back then. It's not like I was rolling in dough," he explained in 2019. "I wanted to buy land and found this spot. It's sixty acres, and it's far enough outside of town that it was cheap. It was, like, $2,000/acre back in '88. Land's more like $10–$12,000 now. It was strictly an investment; I was going to sell it later." His farm, which includes sheep, is at the north end of his property. A caretaker works on the farm; Berry does not anymore. He has a garden, but his caretaker also looks after that. "I get the rewards of it, but he does all the work."

In 2003, Berry and Cybele Lange had a son.

Berry was an avid golfer while a member of R.E.M.

Reunions with R.E.M.
Performances of the three-piece R.E.M. reunited with their original drummer.

title: Bill Berry


text:
Alicia Ann Spottiswoode

Alicia Ann, Lady John Scott (née Spottiswoode; 24 June 1810 – 12 March 1900) was a Scottish songwriter and composer known chiefly for the tune, "Annie Laurie", to which the words of a 17th-century poet, William Douglas, were set.

Life
She was the oldest daughter of John Spottiswoode of Berwickshire and his wife Helen Wauchope of Niddrie-Mains. On 16 March 1836 she married Lord John Scott, a younger son of the 4th Duke of Buccleuch, and consequently was known as Lady John Scott. Lord John Scott died in 1860. Under the will of her father, she resumed her maiden name Spottiswoode in 1866, and was sometimes known as Lady John Scott Spottiswoode.

Lady John Scott was a champion of traditional Scots language, history and culture, her motto being 'Haud [hold] fast by the past'. One of her best known works, "Annie Laurie," was published in 1838. Scott was born at Spottiswoode, Scottish Borders, in the former Berwickshire and died there on 12 March 1900.

Her compositions were published by Paterson & Roy, and included:

Works
Selected works include:

 * “Annie Laurie”
 * “Douglas Tender and True”
 * “Durisdeer”
 * “Etterick”
 * “Farewell to Thee”
 * “Foul Fords”
 * “Katherine Logie”
 * “Lammermoor”
 * “Loch Lomond”
 * “Mother, Oh Sing Me to Rest”
 * “Shame on Ye, Gallants”
 * "Think on Me"
 * “When We First Rode Down to Ettrick”
 * “Within the Garden of My Heart”
 * “Your Voices Are Not Hush'd”

title: Alicia Ann Spottiswoode


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Sandy Powell (costume designer)

Sandy Powell (born 7 April 1960) is a British costume designer. In a career spanning over three decades, she is recognized for her prolific work across independent films and blockbusters. She has received numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, and two Costume Designers Guild Awards. Powell was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to the film industry.

Powell gained prominence for her collaborations with directors Derek Jarman, Neil Jordan, Todd Haynes and Martin Scorsese. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design fifteen times, winning three awards for Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Aviator (2004), and The Young Victoria (2009). She has also received sixteen nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design, winning for Velvet Goldmine (1998), The Young Victoria, and The Favourite (2018).

Early life and education
Powell was born in London in 1960, and grew up in Brixton and Clapham. Her father worked in casinos, while her mother was a secretary. Powell learned to sew from her mother on a Singer sewing machine, drew pictures of clothes, designed and made outfits for her dolls, and started making her own clothes from a young age. She also developed an interest in film and theatre from an early age.

Powell attended Sydenham High School, and in 1978 she completed an art foundation course at Saint Martin's School of Art, where she became acquainted with Lea Anderson, who later became a dancer and choreographer as well as Powell's collaborator. In 1979, Powell began a BA in theatre design at the Central School of Art and Design, but left after two years before completing her degree and started working for fringe theatre companies.

1980–1997: Early work
After leaving Central, Powell began a working relationship with dancer and choreographer Lindsay Kemp, whom she greatly admired. She designed costumes for his productions, the first of which was the show Nijinsky at La Scala in Milan. In the early 1980s, Powell became acquainted with filmmaker Derek Jarman, who became a mentor and an influential figure in her life. Following Jarman's advice, she spent a year working on music videos. She made her entry into the film industry in 1986, designing costumes for the Jarman film Caravaggio.

In 1992, Powell achieved prominence in the period drama film Orlando, directed by Sally Potter. Operating on a limited budget, Powell created elaborate costumes for the gender-switching and time-traveling protagonist (played by Tilda Swinton), for which she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design. Powell also began a collaboration with director Neil Jordan, which would produce a total of six films including the British thriller The Crying Game (1992), the gothic horror film Interview with the Vampire (1994) and the period drama Michael Collins (1996).

1998–2017: Breakthrough
Powell received dual nominations at the 71st Academy Awards for her two 1998 films, Velvet Goldmine and Shakespeare in Love. Echoing the contemporary tone of Shakespeare in Love, Powell opted to sacrifice historical accuracy in her costume designs but still managed to achieve "emotional accuracy", according to Salon critic Stephanie Zacharek. The detail on the costumes of Gwyneth Paltrow's Viola and the thematic significance of her costume changes were also noted as highlights of the film. For her work in the film, Powell won her first Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

Following her win at the 71st Academy Awards, Powell began her collaboration with director Martin Scorsese, starting with his 2002 epic period drama film Gangs of New York, for which she earned her 5th Oscar nomination. The two reunited for the 2004 biographical drama film The Aviator, for which Powell won her second Academy Award. In 2005 she worked on Stephen Frears' Mrs Henderson Presents earning another Academy Award nomination. She worked on Scorsese gain this time for a film set in modern-day creating current day clothing for the Boston crime drama The Departed (2006) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jack Nicholson. She then worked on the historical romantic drama The Other Boleyn Girl which was based on 2001 film of the same name by Philippa Gregory. The film was directed by Justin Chadwick and starred Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, and Eric Bana.

In 2009, She worked on the romantic period drama The Young Victoria directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. The film starred Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria, and the film revolves around her upbringing and romance with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha portrayed by Rupert Friend. She won her third Academy Award for Best Costume Design, and a BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design for her work on the film. The following year she worked on Scorsese's psychological thriller Shutter Island starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Julie Taymor's The Tempest with Helen Mirren. In 2011 she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design her work on Scorsese's children's action adventure film Hugo losing to Mark Bridges for The Artist (2011).

In 2016, Powell received her second dual nominations at the 88th Academy Awards, having been recognized for her works in Kenneth Branagh's Disney live-action adaptation of Cinderella and for Todd Haynes' romantic drama Carol (2015). The later was based on the Patricia Highsmith novel The Price of Salt (1952). The film starred Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as starcrossed lovers in the 1950s. She reunited with Haynes for the black and white film Wonderstruck (2017) starring Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams, based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Brian Selznick. She also served as an executive producer on the film. That same year, she worked on the John Cameron Mitchell's wacky science fiction romantic comedy How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017).

2018–present
In 2019, Powell garnered her third dual nominations at the 91st Academy Awards for her works in Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite (2018) and Rob Marshall's Mary Poppins Returns (2018), making her the most nominated costume designer in Academy Awards history after Edith Head. In 2020, Powell received her 15th Oscar nomination in her seventh collaboration with Martin Scorsese in his epic crime film The Irishman starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci. She shared the nomination with her co-designer, Christopher Peterson.

In the same year, Powell collected many stars' signatures on a cream calico suit in a widely publicized tour of 2020 awards ceremonies, including the 92nd Academy Awards and 73rd British Academy Film Awards, to be auctioned to raise funds for the preservation of director Derek Jarman's home, Prospect Cottage. She also did the costume design for the British drama Living (2021) starring Bill Nighy and the live action Disney film Snow White starring Rachel Zegler.

Major associations
Academy Awards

BAFTA Awards

Other honors

 * Powell was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to the film industry.
 * Powell was made a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) by the Royal Society of Arts in 2013.

title: Sandy Powell (costume designer)