JUPITERASC
Well-known member
Constellations are real stars forming "patterns" "pictures" "Images" in the sky
IMO it is common knowledge that at that ancient time when most people thought the universe was a living being, it was "The Norm" to imagine tiny points of light they saw in the night sky as being grouped into separate, distinct sets of 'Images'. These 'Images' were made up of separate stars which - in the opinion of the ancient people of this planet - seemed to be grouped together. Thousands of years ago, on various parts of the planet Earth, different cultures imaginatively 'connected the dots' of the tiny points of light that they thought were close to each other and personified them as 'Mythical Beings' and narrated stories about the lives of these Mythical Beings. The Mythical Beings and the stories of their lives varied from culture to culture. Different cultures imagined different images in the patterns of the stars of the night sky. The ancient people of this planet did not know that these tiny points of light were hundreds - perhaps even thousands - of light years distant from each other.
THE FOLLOWING IS A QUOTE FROM WIDIPEDIA
Former constellations are constellations that are no longer recognized by the International Astronomical Union for various reasons. Many of these constellations existed for long periods of time, even centuries in many cases, which means they still have a large historical value and can be found on older star charts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Former_constellations
THE FOLLOWING ENCAPSULATED INFORMATION MAY BE FOUND AT http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/astro/asp/constellation.faq.html
The oldest description of the constellations as we know them comes from a poem called Phaenomena written by Greek poet Aratus 270 B.C. and it is clear from the poem that the constellations mentioned originated long before Aratus' time. Some detective work reveals a plausible origin. Firstly, Aratus' constellations excluded any near the south celestial pole because that was always below the horizon of the ancient constellation-makers. From the size of this uncharted area of the sky, we can determine that the people responsible for the original constellations lived near a latitude of 36° north which is south of Greece and north of Egypt but similar to the latitude of the ancient Babylonians and Sumerians.
Because of a "wobble" of the Earth's axis of rotation, the position of the celestial poles changes slowly with time - which is a phenomenon known as precession. The constellation-free zone is not centered exactly on the south celestial pole, instead the uncharted area is centered on the place in the sky where the south celestial pole would have been around the year 2000 B.C. This date matches the time of the Babylonians and Sumerians. So it seems likely that the Greek constellations originated with the Sumerians and Babylonians. From there, knowledge of the constellations somehow made its way to Egypt - perhaps through the Minoans on Crete who had contact with the Babylonians and settled in Egypt after an explosive volcanic eruption destroyed their civilization, and from there early Greek scholars first heard about the constellations and wrote about them.
When most ancient cultures looked at the night sky they saw 'pictures' aka 'Images' in the stars. The earliest known efforts to catalogue the stars date to cuneiform texts (i.e. Sumerian/Babylonian/Assyrian texts and artefacts)and artefacts dating back roughly 6000 years. These remnants, found in the valley of the Euphrates River, suggest that the ancients observing the heavens saw the lion, the bull, and the scorpion in the stars.
here's a link to an interesting British Museum web page regarding the origins of writing in Mesopotamia
http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/writing/story/sto_set.html
IMO it is common knowledge that at that ancient time when most people thought the universe was a living being, it was "The Norm" to imagine tiny points of light they saw in the night sky as being grouped into separate, distinct sets of 'Images'. These 'Images' were made up of separate stars which - in the opinion of the ancient people of this planet - seemed to be grouped together. Thousands of years ago, on various parts of the planet Earth, different cultures imaginatively 'connected the dots' of the tiny points of light that they thought were close to each other and personified them as 'Mythical Beings' and narrated stories about the lives of these Mythical Beings. The Mythical Beings and the stories of their lives varied from culture to culture. Different cultures imagined different images in the patterns of the stars of the night sky. The ancient people of this planet did not know that these tiny points of light were hundreds - perhaps even thousands - of light years distant from each other.
THE FOLLOWING IS A QUOTE FROM WIDIPEDIA
Former constellations are constellations that are no longer recognized by the International Astronomical Union for various reasons. Many of these constellations existed for long periods of time, even centuries in many cases, which means they still have a large historical value and can be found on older star charts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Former_constellations
THE FOLLOWING ENCAPSULATED INFORMATION MAY BE FOUND AT http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/astro/asp/constellation.faq.html
The oldest description of the constellations as we know them comes from a poem called Phaenomena written by Greek poet Aratus 270 B.C. and it is clear from the poem that the constellations mentioned originated long before Aratus' time. Some detective work reveals a plausible origin. Firstly, Aratus' constellations excluded any near the south celestial pole because that was always below the horizon of the ancient constellation-makers. From the size of this uncharted area of the sky, we can determine that the people responsible for the original constellations lived near a latitude of 36° north which is south of Greece and north of Egypt but similar to the latitude of the ancient Babylonians and Sumerians.
Because of a "wobble" of the Earth's axis of rotation, the position of the celestial poles changes slowly with time - which is a phenomenon known as precession. The constellation-free zone is not centered exactly on the south celestial pole, instead the uncharted area is centered on the place in the sky where the south celestial pole would have been around the year 2000 B.C. This date matches the time of the Babylonians and Sumerians. So it seems likely that the Greek constellations originated with the Sumerians and Babylonians. From there, knowledge of the constellations somehow made its way to Egypt - perhaps through the Minoans on Crete who had contact with the Babylonians and settled in Egypt after an explosive volcanic eruption destroyed their civilization, and from there early Greek scholars first heard about the constellations and wrote about them.
When most ancient cultures looked at the night sky they saw 'pictures' aka 'Images' in the stars. The earliest known efforts to catalogue the stars date to cuneiform texts (i.e. Sumerian/Babylonian/Assyrian texts and artefacts)and artefacts dating back roughly 6000 years. These remnants, found in the valley of the Euphrates River, suggest that the ancients observing the heavens saw the lion, the bull, and the scorpion in the stars.
here's a link to an interesting British Museum web page regarding the origins of writing in Mesopotamia
http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/writing/story/sto_set.html