In 1612, the astronomer Plancius published a star atlas, where the constellation of the Rooster was marked in the southern hemisphere - south of the Unicorn, partly where Big Dog is. But astronomers of subsequent generations did not accept the name. However, a real zoo remained in the sky.
"Encryption" from antiquity
In our time, stars do not receive proper names as names.
“The history of the names of constellations and stars“froze”in 1922, when at the congress of the International Astronomical Union, scientists decided that they would no longer name anything and fixed the traditional names. The exceptions are asteroids and exoplanets, but one can only suggest a name for them,”says Sergei Nazarov, a junior researcher at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory.
But in the past centuries, there was room in the sky for fantasy and legends. The recently discovered star cannot be given an unusual name - it receives an alphabetic, digital designation or does not receive it at all, since several hundred billion stars have been recorded. It makes no sense to name them all. In ancient times, of course, people saw the brightest of them, the sky was familiar, and everything required a name.
Already tens of thousands of years ago, the first astronomers drew recognizable constellations, the Sun, the Moon on rocks and stone plates. The most impressive of these images are the fixation of the position of bright stars, the contours of the constellations, the phases of the moon. In those days, animals occupied a significant place in the life of people, so they looked for similarities with them in the sky. So, for example, the constellations of the Horse, Pisces appeared. Later, the stars were named after mythical animals - Capricorn, Pegasus. The most ancient names of the constellations have a double meaning: so, in Libra, not only the measuring device is encrypted, but also the fact that the day is balanced in September and April.
Ancient Greeks, avid travelers and skillful navigators, mastered new territories, went on campaigns that were reflected in their legends. The constellation Aries can be named after the campaign for the golden fleece in the Northern Black Sea region. According to one version, the constellation Virgo could also appear thanks to mythology. Separately, one can single out the constellations mentioned by ancient Greek astronomers: Lesser Horse, Whale, Dragon, Hare, Great Dog, Lesser Dog, Dove and Taurus.
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The Dragon and the Dove is an echo from the myth of the Argonauts, and the Kit got its name from the monster that was supposed to eat Andromeda.
Bear, but not that one
In one of the constellations, people in different parts of the planet recognized the same animal - the bear. But what we see now is not that Bear at all. Ursa Major is a constellation that consists of bright and nearby stars. They move faster than distant ones. It turns out that the constellation very quickly deforms and shifts in the sky. For several thousand years, it has noticeably changed its appearance. Perhaps in the past, the bear was better recognized in him. In addition, the ancients could consider some of the stars that were not included in the constellation.
The history of the names of the constellations contains Arabic, European names. The classification of constellations and names began in ancient Greece. A little later, the Romans tried to carry out similar work, but to no avail. Then the dark ages came in Europe, the development of astronomy stopped. But the Arab scientists picked up the baton of science, a lot of the names of the stars are Arabic.
But when the era of great geographical discoveries began, Europeans began to travel to the Southern Hemisphere, they could admire the constellations that they had not seen before. And, of course, they gave them their names. Conventionally, they can be divided into two parts: related to technical inventions for travel - Compass, Clock, Compass, Pump, Stove. Triangle, Sextant, Octant, and dedicated discoveries - Indian, Bird of Paradise, Southern Fly. Chameleon, Toucan.
Arsen Kermenchikli