Star Lore Rosa The Rose

Rosa is a now obsolete constellation designed in 1640 by Petrus Apianus.

The shortlived constellation Rosa appeared only on one map - a planisphere of the northern hemisphere, created in 1540 by German astronomer and cartographer Petrus Apianus for his book Astronomicum Caesareum. Apianus did not assign any stars to the small rose in his map. John C. Barentine identified the position in the map as the location of the Coma Star Cluster, also known as Melotte 111 and Collinder 256. The stars are barely visible to the unaided eye. Ptolemy had listed them as a triangle "shaped like an ivy leaf." On the Arab Peninsula, the Coma Star Cluster was part of the celestial complex of the Lion. Here, the Coma Star Cluster was known as al-hulba, the Tail Hair.

Rosa in Apianus' Astronomicum Caesareum Sources: atlascoelestis.com

Today, the cluster is part of the constellation Coma Berenices. Sources: John C. Barentine: The Constellations and Asterisms of Petrus Apianus, atlascoelestis.com, astrocultura.uai.it

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