Skywise Unlimited

Canis Major is one of the several constellations in the sky that represent dogs. It’s the greater dog of the two near Orion. This constellation was handed down to us from Ptolemy a couple thousand years ago. Most of the time Canis Major is merely introduced as one of Orion’s two rabbit chasers. But there […]

The constellation Canis Minor is the lesser dog and it is essentially just two stars, Procyon and Gomeisa. So it’s like one of those wiener dogs I guess. Orion has a couple of dogs following him around the sky, one of your larger breeds, and the wiener. A lot of people do that. I’m not […]

The constellation Cepheus represents the King of Aethiopia in the Cassiopeia-Andromeda-Perseus story. The myth mostly revolves around the ongoing struggle of religious discord that always comes with liberal upstarts challenging conservative church dogma. It happens that the old gods feel they aren’t getting the respect they are used to and send monsters to put the […]

Cetus is a constellation that represents a whale. Remember “cetology” is the study of whales and dolphins and porpoises. The association between these stars and a whale goes way back. But then some ancient Greek astronomers came along and added the whole Andromeda-drama which involves a giant squidly sea monster known as the Kraken, so […]

The constellation Chamaeleon represents a chameleon, the color-changing lizard, so nothing lost in translation there. You do lose an “a” when you spellcheck it. This group of stars is as southern as you can go in the sky without being at the actual bottom. There is no Greek or Babylonian thing to go with this […]

Circinus is a constellation named for the drafting compass, which is the thingy you use to draw perfect circles like Charlie Brown’s head. At first glance you probably thought Circinus was about the circus, but sadly, no. Navigators also use this sort of compass to measure and make marks on maps during long boring days […]

Columba is a constellation that was called Columba Noachi for awhile, which means “Noah’s Dove.” You recall I’m sure that Noah, at the ripe old age of 600, loaded his wife and his three sons and their wives and millions of animals into a boat with one little window. Yahweh himself closed the door. They […]

Coma Berenices is a constellation whose name is from an actual historical figure, Queen Berenice II of Egypt, 266 – 221 BC. Not only was she a real queen, she was the original drama queen. In many ways this was the time of real-life games of thrones. For example, her first husband had an affair […]

The constellation named Corona Australis, the southern crown, used to be named Corona Austrina. The International Astronomical Union, the same magnificent bastards whose hatred of Pluto led to its utter and complete humiliation, officially recorded the name as “Corona Austrina” in 1922. Back then each constellation was also given a four-letter abbreviation to be used […]

Corona Borealis is a constellation whose name translates to Northern Crown. It is easy to find, just a semi-circle of bright stars high in the summer sky. It does look kind of like a tiara I suppose. It’s a bit of expensive jewelry that once belonged to Princess Ariadne of Crete. You may remember from […]

The constellation Corvus represents a crow. I sort of wish it was associated with a crow story from one of the American Indian tribes. The Indian stories about crows are so much more dignified, glorious even. Crows and ravens in the Americas are wise and always doing great things like stealing fire from the gods […]

Crater is one of the constellations passed down from the ancients to us via Ptolemy. Its brightest star Labrum, “the lip” (of the cup) is rather dim. The allegorical drawing is usually of the type of cup that has two opposing handles, for serious wine consumption. In the story, the god Apollo is taking a […]