Flowers of the SkyProctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Science
Flowers of the Sky
Proctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Astronomy
properly to separate the older constellations from each other, so that
to this day the Scorpion remains entangled with the legs of Ophiuchus,
who is further inextricably mixed up with the Serpent. In fact, the
Serpent is divided into two separate parts by the body of Ophiuchus,
map-makers having no choice but either to allow Ophiuchus to divide
the Serpent, or the Serpent to divide Ophiuchus.
[Illustration: Fig. 38.--The Original Constellation of the Lion.]
In the next case, that of the Great Lion, we have still further to
depart from the modern configuration of the constellation. No one can
imagine the remotest resemblance between any part of a lion and the
grouping of stars falling on the corresponding portion of Leo in the
modern constellation. The nose of the Lion now falls near λ (fig.
38); μ and ρ forming the outline of the mane, β the end of
the tail, ε the nearer fore-paw, τ the nearer hind-paw. The
original Lion, I cannot doubt, was imagined somewhat as pictured in fig.
38. The head and mane are unmistakably pictured among the stars, the
paws fairly, the relatively small quarters and the tufted tail
exceedingly well--always remembering that anything like very close
resemblance is not to be looked for between a widely extended group of
stars and the figure of an animal or other large object. If we remember
also that uncultured nations, like children, are much quicker in
imagining resemblances than those carefully trained to recognise the
artistic delineation of objects, we cannot be surprised to find that
nearly all those nations who were acquainted with the lion imagined a
large leonine figure in the part of the heavens now centrally occupied
by our modern and most puny Lion, but including portions of Cancer, the
whole of Leo Minor (one of Hevelius's absurd inventions), the Hair of
Berenice, and a star or two belonging to Virgo.
[Illustration: Fig. 39.--The Original Ship "Argo."]
We have to treat in a similar way the constellation Argo of our present
maps, to get the good ship Argo, as the ancients must have conceived the
constellation. Fig. 39 shows the Ship as I imagine she was originally
pictured. The stars which mark her curved poop belong in part at
present (as doubtless they have long belonged) to the Larger Dog, while
those which mark the steering-oar belong to the modern constellation
Columba Noachi, or Noah's Dove. It must be observed that the bright star
Canopus, shown in the water, was not visible in the time of the first
observers in the latitude where they probably dwelt. The mighty gyrating
motion of the earth has caused these stars to be brought five or six
degrees further from the southern pole of the heavens. But Canopus and a
few of the small stars near it are the only stars which have thus been
added to the constellation as seen from the regions inhabited by the
first observers. (Canopus was known to the Arabian and Egyptian
astronomers.)
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