Posted on Sunday, December 11, 2016
Uncharted Constellations: Asterisms, Single-Source and Rebrands by John C. Barentine
Constellations are curious constructs of human imagination combined with our view of the stars. They have a location, and size, borders, neighbours and also legends or myths and a history. Some constellations or asterisms are very well known, others not so much.
Unchrted Constellations is a fascinating book about constellations that were once placed on star charts, but for one reason or other didn't catch on, and were either substituded for another one at a different time and place, or merged in with a constellation that still exists.
This book gives information on the backgrounds of these constellations, that you're quite unlikely to come across on many historical starmaps, you also get it's location, and who came up with the constellation.
The constellations that haven't ended up in the official 88 constellations are interesting, espescially when the constellation itself is still represented on constellation figures, such as The Head of Medusa. It was fascinating to learn that it was for a moment a constellation in its own right.
Ofcourse the book also gives a sense of what could have been - the constellations of a cat and an owl for example, or a bee. What was it that stopped those delightful constellations to become known, is something that you can find out in Uncharted Constellations.
The book left me craving for more interesting historical constellations to add to my pile of obscure knowledge.
Labels: book review, Uncharted Constellations