At 01:32 PM Wednesday 6/7/2006, Dave Land wrote:
On Jun 7, 2006, at 10:55 AM, Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
<<http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/science/3945197.html>>
The supernova appeared in the constellation Lupus, a little
below and west of the well-known constellation of Scorpius,
the scorpion.
"What particularly got my attention about that rock and the
glyphs on it was the representation of what is pretty obviously
a star, and a bright star at that. And the figure of a scorpion.
Scorpions appear in rock in the Southwest but are not a very
common motif," Barentine said.
Do anthropologists know that North American aboriginal people thought
of that constellation as a scorpion? Just because "we" do doesn't
necessarily mean that they did.
Look at a star map, even one without lines or
labels depicting the officially recognized
constellations. (Frex, any planetarium software
program with those features turned
off.) Scorpius is one of the few constellations
which really resemble the animal they are
supposed to depict. And people in the SW would be familiar with them.
I've often wondered whether other cultures came up with the same
constellations as the Greeks and Romans did, and that we recognize.
I believe that some Polynesians saw the figure as
a fishhook, which was perhaps more familiar/important to them than a scorpion.
At least in the Northern hemisphere.
Who knew there was a constellation "Antlia", which is said to depict
an air pump?
Me. :P
Appearing in the Southern hemisphere, Antlia was
introduced by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the mid-18th century to
commemorate Robert Boyle's invention. Lacaille also came up with
"Horologium", the Pendulum Clock, a faint and obscure asterism of the
Southern hemisphere. Its similarity to any sort of clock is difficult
to see:
<http://www.dibonsmith.com/hor_con.gif>.)
True. Many of these so-called "modern
constellations were introduced to fill in gaps
between the 48 classical constellations in the
list found in Ptolmey's _Almagest_. The gaps of
course included the part of the sky with which
the Greeks were unfamiliar, especially that part
of the sky within 30° of the then south celestial
pole. (Because of precession, Greeks living in
Alexandria and vicinity could see frex Crux and
alpha and beta Centauri, which are now closer to
the SCP and so not visible from there any more.)
--Ronn! :)
"Since I was a small boy, two states have been
added to our country and two words have been
added to the pledge of Allegiance... UNDER
GOD. Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that
is a prayer and that would be eliminated from schools too?"
-- Red Skelton
(Someone asked me to change my .sig quote back, so I did.)
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