Star Stories

B: Bibliography

2005-01-24T10:26:00.000-05:00

Olcott, William Tyler. Star Lore: Myths, Legends, and Facts. Dover Publications, Inc., New York: 2004. An unabridged republication of Olcott's 1911 Star Lore of All Ages, G.P. Putman's Sons, NY and London.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation
http://www.iau.org/IAU/Activities/nomenclature/const.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Constellation
http://www.constellation-names.at/
http://www.perr.com/constellation.html
http://www.teapot.orcon.net.nz/maori_star_names.html

Progress

2005-01-24T10:22:00.000-05:00

Progress is going slowly. Last semester I was totally swamped with teaching. This semester I have one less class, but it's supposed to be used to prep a new course for the fall. And this break was only 3 weeks short with one weekend taken up by the MIT Mystery Hunt (soon to be blogged on my main blog). However, I did recently pick up a reprinting of a 1910 book with the Greco-Roman myths, as well as a bit about the Mesopotamian ones. It'll serve as a starting point to refresh my memory on the myths.

Oh, and the B&N teacher's discount is only for K-12. :(

Orion

2004-11-18T22:29:00.000-05:00

Orion is the great hunter and one of the most recognizeable constellations. In the late Summer he rises late in the night, and his rising in the evening after sunset is a sure sign of Fall and the coming of Winter. His belt runs parallel to the Celestial Equator, and therefore perpendicular to the horizon. The Orion region of the sky contains a large molecular cloud complex, and therefore some of the most famous nebulae are visible within the constellation, such as M42 (the Orion Nebula, visible to the naked eye as the middle sword star, a star-forming region) and M## (the Horsehead Nebula, a molecular cloud core).

In Greek mythology Orion was a hunter. His figure in the sky is often depicted has having a short sword hanging from a belt, a bow in his left (correct) hand, and brandishing a club over his head. Orion's bow is aimed West towards Taurus, the bull, and he is followed in the East by Canis Major and Canis Minor, his large and small hunting dogs. One myth tells that he was killed by a scorpion, and another that he also hunted the scorpion, either story resulting in Scorpio being located on the opposite side of the sky so that the two are never above the horizon together.

0: Introduction

2004-11-18T19:34:00.000-05:00

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.

All material is copyright 2004-present. Permission is granted to reprint or repost unaltered material for non-profit educational purposes so long as credit is given to the author, but not for commercial, for-profit, or personal non-educational uses. This URL may be freely distributed or linked.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

2: Constellation List

2004-11-01T22:06:00.000-05:00

Alphabetical:

Andromeda
Antlia
Apus
Aquarius
Aquila
Ara
(Argo Navis)
Aries
Auriga
Austrinae
Bootes
Caelum
Camelopardalis
Cancer
Canes Venatici
Canis Major
Canis Minor
Capricornus
Carina (formerly part of Argo Navis)
Cassiopeia
Centaurus
Cepheus
Cetus
Chamaeleon
Circinus
Columba
Coma Berenices
Corona Austrina
Corona Borealis
Corvus
Crater
Crux
Cygnus
Delphinus
Dorado
Draco
Equuleus
Eridanus
Fornax
Gemini
Grus
Hercules
Horologium
Hydra
Hydrus
Indus
Lacerta
Leo
Leo Minor
Lepus
Libra
Lupus
Lynx
Lyra
Mensa
Microscopium
Monoceros
Musca
Norma
Octans
Ophiuchus
Orion
Pavo
Pegasus
Perseus
Phoenix
Pictor
Pisces
Piscis Austrinus
Puppis (formerly part of Argo Navis)
Pyxis
Reticulum
Sagitta
Sagittarius
Scorpius
Sculptor
Scutum
(Serpens)
Serpens Caput (formerly part of Serpens)
Serpens Caudex (formerly part of Serpens)
Sextans
Taurus
Telescopium
Triangulum
Triangulum Australe
Tucana
Ursa Major
Ursa Minor
Vela (formerly part of Argo)
Virgo
Volans
Vulpecula

By region of the sky:

under construction
Greece spans 34-42 deg N latitude
The city of Rome is at 42 deg N.

Zodiac

Aries
Taurus
Gemini
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
Libra
Scorpio
(Ophiuchus)
Saggitarius
Capricornus
Aquarius
Pisces

North Circumpolar

Ursa Major
Ursa Minor
Camelopardalis
Cassiopeia
Cepheus
Draco

Other North

Andromeda
Auriga
Aquila
Bootes
Canes Vn
Cetus
Corona Borealis
Cygnus
Delphinus
Equ
Hercules
Lac
Lynx
Lyra
Ophiuchus
Pegasus
Perseus
Saggita
Scutum
Serpens Caput
Serpens Caudex
Vulpecula

South visible from Mediterranian

Canis Major
Canis Minor
Centaurus
Cetus
Corona Australis
Corvus
Crater
Eridanus
Hydra
Lupus (?)
Sextans
Scutum

South Circumpolar

(Argo Navis)
Caelum
Carina (Argo Navis)
Circinus
Columba
Crux
Dorad--
Fornax
Horologium
Hydra
Lepus
Monocerous
Norma
Phoenix
Pictor
Pupis (Argo Navis)
Pyxis
Ret
Vela (Argo Navis)

1: Definition

2004-11-01T19:50:00.000-05:00

The definition of the term "constellation" has changed throughout the ages. In the current day, there are 88 constellations officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union^#. As astronomers currently use the term, every spot on the night sky falls within the boundaries of some constellation--the constellation is not just the bright stars, nor the lines or pictures that sometimes connect them in fanciful drawings. Every new star, molecular cloud, or galaxy that is discovered is already in a known and assigned constellation--much as if a biologist were to discover a new species of plant, that plant is already living in some pre-existing country.

This scientific division of the sky into regions called constellations is not the way the term has always been used, nor is it what most people think of when using the word in common English. The human brain searches for pattens, and the sky is no exception. Most of us today, as well as during Greek times, grouped the stars visible to the naked eye into more-or-less recognizeable forms, such as heroic mortals, gods and goddesses, fanciful monsters, and faithful companion animals.

Ptolemy recognized twelve zodiacal constellations and some 36 to 38 other constellations.^# These other constellations can be further broken down into circumpolar, other northern, and southern constellations. (Terms to be explained later.) Not visible from the Mediterranian are additional south circumpolar constellations. These were not discovered by Westerners until the boom of European exploration and navigation in the 1400's. The search for accurate navigation out of sight of land led to mapping of the southern constellations in the 1600's.

Every day the Sun rises and sets. Every night the stars rise and set. To get a clear picture of what the sky looks like, imagine freezing the dark sky above our heads one night--you can only see half the stars, because half are below the horizon. The other half can be found if you travelled to Australia and that same night froze its stars. Put the two together, and you appear to have a black crystal sphere with bright points of light surrounding the Earth. This image or model of how the stars are seen from the Earth is what astronomers call the celestial sphere. It has a north celestial pole (near Polaris, the Pole Star) directly overhead when standing at the Earth's North Pole, a south celestial pole (there are no bright stars nearby) directly overhead at the Earth's South Pole, and a celestial equator directly overhead at the Earth's equator.

We will be returning to the model of the celestial sphere in the discussion of the "zones" of the sky that the constellations fall into. For further details, see the (pending) appendix on celestial coordinate systems.

Zodiac

The ancient Greeks discovered that among all the fixed stars in the sky, there were some bright lights that seemed to meander through the rest during the course of a year. These "wanderers" were named "planets," and by a strict interpretation of the word, even the Sun and Moon would be considered planets. The apparent path of Sun through the sky is today called the ecliptic, and makes a Great Circle. The Moon and planets follow paths that are not nearly as perfect; some of the planets even do loop-the-loops through the sky. But despite these acrobatics, they stay close to the path of the ecliptic. The region they pass through is known as the zodiac, and traditionally contains twelve constellations.

The ecliptic intersects the celestial equator in two locations, and hence some of the zodiacal constellations are in the northern celestial hemisphere, and some are Southern.

Do I want more about retrograde motion, and why they're all in a plane?

North Circumpolar Constellations

If you go out on any clear night, unless you live too far South, and you will see the Big Dipper (Ursa Major). In the Spring, its bowl appears to be pointing downwards, as if pouring out the Spring rains. Other times of the year the Big Dipper will be pointing in different directions, sometimes above the Pole Star (Polaris), sometimes below, but it is always above the horizon. In fact, if you stood outside all night and watched the Big Dipper, and if you could also see the stars during the day, you would see it circle around and around Polaris and never set below the horizon. It is as though when the Big Dipper tries to set, it misses the horizon and instead swings around below Polaris and above the horizon.

This behavior of "missing the horizon" and never setting marks Ursa Major as a circumpolar ("around the pole") constellation. If you live near the equator, there are few or no circumpolar constellations. For someone living at the North or South Pole of the Earth, all constellations are circumpolar--think about the "midnight sun," when even in the middle of the night the sun is still above the horizon.

Other North Constellations

In short, these are the other north celestial hemisphere constellations visible to the ancients.

Southern Visible Constellations

Although these constellations are south of the celestial equator, they are visible part of the year from the Mediterranian.

South Circumpolar Constellations

These constellations were never visible to the Greeks and Romans, and are only visible as the observer travels further south.