0: Introduction

Welcome to my new blog, "Star Stories." I discovered today that November is National Novel Writing Month, where "novel" is definied as a fictional piece of 50,000 words or more. Unfortunately, I haven't had any fiction ideas in a while, but I've been wanting to write a book about multi-cultural constellation myths, and I have now created this blog to make me do it.

I will be periodically posting information that I learn--starting with things like the names of the 88 constellations currently recognized by the present day Western World and codified by the International Astronomical Union. The "final" work will eventually cover all the Greco-Roman myths and as many non-Western myths I can find, organized by present day constellation name. I may include astronomical information about objects in each constellation as well, but it is not a priority at this time.

While I am in this early stage of production, I highly encourage reader feedback through the "comment" function at the bottom of each post. Please keep your criticisms constructive, and I suggest that for every "suggestion for improvement" you give just as much praise for things that you do like, so that I am not discouraged and instead gain momentum from your feedback.

Since the modern scientific community is based upon Western European tradition, that will be used as the basis throughout this writing. The overall ogranization will be to first introduce the concept of a constellation, starting with modern day definition and then historical--while this will be mainly a historical and cultural work, it is important to recognize the present-day knowledge of the science of the field of astronomy. Following said definition section, the 88 present-day constellations are organized into five groups as they are located in the sky from the latitudes of Western Europe and the Medditeranian: zodiac, circumpolar, other northern, visible southern, and south circumpolar (not visible).

Other information I would like to include (maybe in the chapters, or perhaps in appendices) are diagram of the brightest stars, drawing for the various myths, wide-field photo of the constellation, approximate RA/Dec borders, names and RA/Dec of brightest stars, Messier objects, season for viewing, and an explanation of the RA/Dec system.


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