The Constellations
How today's 88 constellations came to be
Part 2: Arabic Influences and the Age of Discovery
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The ConstellationsHow today's 88 constellations came to bePart 2: Arabic Influences and the Age of Discovery |
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In the first Part of our constellations history, we looked at
the development of the first 48 constellations as they were defined by Greek astronomers Hipparchus and Ptolemy. The classic Hellenistic period ended
with Ptolemy, and for centuries to come, the biggest influence on astronomy came from the Arab world and from Persia. In the second part of
our history, we look at some of the great Persian and Arab astronomers.
 The main work of these astronomers was the creation of books containing tables and calculations of the positions of the Sun, Moon, stars, and planets. In Persian, these tables were called zīj. They didn't add any new constellations, but their work breached the gap between the ancient priod that gave us the first half of today's constellations and the age of discovery, that created the second half. The navigation done by the European explorers of the 15th and 16th century would not have been possible without the groundwork done in the Islamic world in the centuries before. |
Bits of the history of our constellations, Part II |
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The Astrolabe
The word Astrolabe is derived from the Greek words astron (star) and lambanein (to take), meaning "recording stars" or, as
Jonathan Powell puts it: "the one who catches the heavenly bodies."
In Arabic, the Astrolabe was called ākhidhu al-Nujūm, meaning "star-taker."
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Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (903 – 986)
Al-Sufi was a Persian astronomer who first worked on
translating Greek astronomical works, especially Ptolemy's Almagest. Al-Sufi expanded Ptolemy's work and tried to relate the Greek star names and
constellations with the traditional Arabic ones. Greek and Arabic constellations overlapped in complicated ways, especially as Arabic astronomy
focused more on individual stars, which were often representing animals or people. Ian Ridpath writes:
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The Book of Fixed Stars (ca. 964)
Al-Sufi's Book of Fixed Stars create a thoroughly illustrated synthesis of
Ptolemy’s Almagest with Arabic astronomical traditions on the constellations. Al-Sufi not just copied Ptolemy’s catalogue, but enhanced
it with his own observations.
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The Toledan Tables (ca. 1080)
In the eleventh century, astronomy returned to Europe, though under Arab (Moorish) rule.
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Planetary equations for Saturn and VenusSource: José Chabás |
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Tarabellum & Vexillum (ca. 1225)
In his position as science adviser and court astrologer to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, Scottish mathematician and scholar
Michael Scot created the first new constellations since the time of
Ptolemy.
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Michael Scot;
Wikipedia
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Source: atlascoelestis.com
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The Alfonsine Tables (1252) In the mid-twelfth century, Raymond de Sauvetât, the archbishop of Toledo created the Toledo School of Translators to translate philosophical and religious works, mainly from classical Arabic into Latin. |
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In the mid-thirteenth century, king Alfonso X of Castile
expanded the focus to scientific work like Euclid's Elements of Geometry and Ptolemy's Almagest. The works were translated into Castilian.
One of the major translations was that of the Toledan Tables, which were not only translated but updated to astronomical data starting on January 1, 1252, the date of the coronation of the King. The fall of Córdoba in 1236 signaled then end of Muslim rule on the Iberian peninsula. With the dawn of the Renaissance, the center of astronomy returned to Europe and for the next three hundred years, the Alfonsine Tables set the standard for astronomy in Europe. Sources: Wikipedia |
Pages from the Alphonsine TablesSource: Wikipedia |
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New constellations (1536)
In 1536, German cartographer Caspar Vopel published a celestial globe showing two new
constellations in addition to Ptolemy's forty-eight.
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Sources: Ian Ridpath, Elly Dekker: Caspar Vopel's Ventures in Sixteenth-Century Celestial Cartography
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When you see the Southern Cross for the first time (1455 - 1603)
When watched from Egypt or the Middle East, the Southern Cross is a dim group of stars, barely rising over the
horizon. So, it is not surprising, that Ptolemy regarded those stars only as a small asterism,
belonging to the constellation Centaurus.
Source: Wikipedia, Crosby, Stills and Nash |
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The maps and globes of Petrus Plancius (1589 - 1603)
In 1589, a celestial globe, designed by Dutch-Flemish cartographer Petrus Plancius and published
by Floris van Langren showed the
Southern Cross for the first time as an independent constellation.
The globe also displayed the Magellanic Clouds (though without a label) and a
Triangulus Antarcticus, a star formation
observed by Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci, but most likely put in the wrong place.
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Crux and Triangulus Antarcticus on van Langren's celestial globeSource: Royal Museum Greenwitch |
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Petrus Plancius, who was one
of the most notable people in the development of modern constellations. In addition to his enormous influence on other astronomers,
Plancius created ten new constellations, three of which are still in use today.
In 1592, he included two planispheres of the northern and southern celestial hemispheres as decoration for a large world map. In each hemisphere, he added one new constellation; Columba (The Dove) in the north and Polophylax (the Guardian of the Pole) in the south. He abandoned the idea of Polophylax in 1597 in favor of the new constellations designed by the Dutch navigators. In 1598, Plancius was the first to display all twelve constellations developed by Keyser and de Houtman on a globe. In 1603, on his initiative, Crux, the Southern Cross, was listed as a separate constellation in the Uranometria.
In 1612/13, Plancius developed eight additional faint constellations in the northern sky. He showed them on a map in 1613. six of them were later shown
in 1624 Usus Astronomicus Planisphaerii Stellati,
a book by German astronomer Jakob Bartsch.
Plancius was one of the founders of the Dutch East India Company. He drew over 100
maps for the Dutch fleets exploring the world. Plancius also trained the pilots of the first Dutch Fleet bound for the East Indies to make
astronomical observations during their journey.
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Mapping the stars of the southern sky (1595 - 1603)
In 1595, the first Dutch fleet (called Eerste Schipvaart or
First Expedition) set sail for
the East Indies. The navigators on board these ships would soon be writing their names in the southern skies.
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Title page of the Dutch sailing handbook "Light of Navigation" (1608) showing navigators using compass, hourglass, astrolabes, globes, divider and Jacob's staff.Source: Wikipedia |
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The First Fleet returned to Holland in 1597 and the navigators brought home star charts that included twelve new constellations. They were first shown on a globe
manufactured by Petrus Plancius in 1598. Another globe was made by Dutch cartographer
Jodocus Hondius in 1600.
Cornelius and Frederick de Houtman went on a second voyage in 1598. In Aceh on the island of Sumatra, Cornelius was killed and Frederick was imprisoned for two years. During this time, he studied the Malay language and continued making astronomical observations, improving and extending Keyser's earlier observations. He consolidated the astronomical work of the first Dutch expedition and eventually brought back star charts documenting the observation of 303 fixed stars, 196 of which were new to astronomers on the northern hemisphere. After his return to Holland in 1603, he published all of his studies in one book, the Malay and Madagascan dictionary. His astronomical observations thus became an appendix to a dictionary. Then, in 1603, Uranometria, the first star atlas showing the entire sky was published by German cartographer Johann Bayer. In hindsight, it was impossible to decipher, which of the new constellations were first observed by Keyser and which by de Houtman. Consequently, they were both jointly credited with the introduction of twelve new constellations: |
Houtman's listings of Musca (De Vlieghe)and Volans (De vlieghende Visch). Source: Utrecht University Library
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