The first catalog of stars is generally attributed to Hipparchus, a Greek astronomer who lived in the 2nd century BC.

While his original catalog has been lost, it was referenced and expanded upon by later astronomers, including Ptolemy, whose catalog, the Almagest, became the standard reference for centuries.

Hipparchus' catalog was significant because it:

* Listed the positions of approximately 850 stars: This was a significant improvement over previous attempts to map the stars, which were mostly qualitative.

* Introduced a system of magnitudes: He ranked stars based on their brightness, which is a system still used today.

* Recorded the positions of stars with greater precision: This allowed for better understanding of the movements of stars over time.

Though it's impossible to know for sure what his exact catalog looked like, Hipparchus is credited with the first systematic and quantitative attempt to map the stars, laying the foundation for modern astronomy.