I recently noticed that the default background for Ubuntu 23.04 “Lunar Lobster” has a purple star missing and now that i noticed it, i can’t unsee it. The one towards the bottom right is barely visible so that passes.
I recently noticed that the default background for Ubuntu 23.04 “Lunar Lobster” has a purple star missing and now that i noticed it, i can’t unsee it. The one towards the bottom right is barely visible so that passes.
Other constellations are much older, and are actually in the shape of the thing they represent. Ptolomy wrote down his constellations about 900 years after the Babylonians split up the zodiac into the constellations we now use in the western world as well as India and the Islamic world (with the exception of a bigger constellation that was split into three). An earlier version of Babylonian astrology goes back to about 1000 BCE and still covers many of the constellations we use today, with many names coinciding with their Greek and current derivations.
100CE is still old of course, but it’s about as far removed from the origins of most other constellations as we are from the East-West Schism.
Edit: So apparently what i first wrote up can be summarized as “Asterisms are more relevant and sensible than constellations”…
original comment
Especially nowadays with light pollution it’s easy to tell which constellations make sense, the top ones in the northern sky IMO being: Cassiopeia, Ursa Major, Orion, Cygnus (really just the middle 4 stars), and Ursa Minor but mostly because that’s got Polaris in it and it’s the most important star.
Also fun anecdote: When i was a kid and didn’t know any constellations other than orion, cassiopeia, and ursa major; i independently recognized the middle 4 stars of cygnus and called it the Pilot because it looks like the front view of a jet fighter, so how’s THAT for being a sensible constellation!
Sure, but it’s still just some dudes playing join-the-dots in the sky. None of it means anything.