The Rambling Astronomer

Lupus is often overlooked by observers because it is so close to the constellation of Scorpius and Centaurus. Although the term Lupus refers to a wolf, the Greeks and Romans regarded this constellation as an unspecified wild animal held by Centaurus as an offering to the gods. It appear to be during the renaissance period that the connection with the Wolf seems to have become the common term to use. Lupus lies in the Milky Way so it is very rich in stars.

A small faint constellation of the zodiac, the ancient Greeks knew it as the ‘claws of the scorpion’ an extension of the neighbouring constellation of the Scorpion. However the Romans made it a separate constellation at the time of Julius Caesar. Since then the scales of Libra have come to be regarded a the symbol of justice held aloft by the goddess of justice Astraea.

A constellation known to the ancient Greeks, it represents a hare cunningly located at the feet of Orion. The Hare was placed in the sky for Orion to Hunt.

The smaller Lion designated by Johannes Hevelius in 1687, located between Ursa Major and Leo. Leo Minor hardly merits a separate name as there are no bright stars. He designed 10 new constellation and we still use 7 of them today.

One of the few constellations that looks like the figure it is supposed to represent in this case a crouching lion. The Lion’s head is outlined by a sickle shape or backwards question mark at the bottom of which is the bright star Regulus.

This is the lion that is slain by the hero Hercules as the first of his 12 labours.

Another inconspicuous constellation sandwiched between Cygnus and Andromeda, introduced to the sky by Johannes Hevelius in 1687.

Sometime around 500 a British monk was born he was known as Gildas Sapiens or Gildas the Wise, no one is quite sure where he was born some say the north of England which could have been part of the more northern area of Yorkshire. He was a very well educated person, however some of the things he would describe were believed to have been of a biblical fire and brimstone nature, making him appear as nutty as a fruit cake! That has now changed with scientists now studying much more closely the things he was talking about.

This constellation was proposed by the Dutch navigator /astronomer Peter Keyser in honour of the natives of America at the end of the 16th century. It was introduced to stellar maps by Johan Bayer in 1603.

It was one of twelve constellations created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman and it first appeared on a 35-cm (14 in) diameter celestial globe published in late 1597 (or early 1598) in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius. The first depiction of this constellation in a celestial atlas was in Johann Bayer's Uranometria of 1603.

Hydra is the largest constellation in the sky but is by no means easy to find on account of its faintness. Hydra winds its way from the head in the northern hemisphere on the borders of Cancer to the tip of its tail south of the celestial equator near Libra and Centaurus. Hydra has only one readily identified star alpha or Alphard which marks the heart of the snake. Hydra is usually identified with the multi headed creature that was slain by Hercules.