Skywise Unlimited

Crux, the southern cross, started showing up on some constellation maps in the early 1600’s. It became accepted more or less officially in 1679 when Augustin Royer insisted on tearing Crux away from Centaurus, of which it was a part since ancient times. It’s just as well because Crux is one of the most easily […]

The constellation Cygnus is a large swan, flying southward along the summer plane of the Milky Way. There is a dark lane that separates the cloudy path of our galaxy into two parts here. It’s known as the Great Rift. Although it looks like a divided highway, the dark part is really a long cloud […]

Delphinus is a small summer constellation which represents a dolphin. It’s one on Ptolemy’s maps which means it goes way back. It looks like a kite. At some point in history a few brighter stars, the kite-ish part but disregarding the tail, came to be known as Job’s Coffin. Job you may remember is the […]

The constellation Dorado is one of 12 constellations created by the Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius, who liked to name stuff after exotic animals. The allegorical figure is usually drawn as a swordfish, even though the name itself is associated with dolphinfish. The name dolphinfish is associated with mahi mahi, and the name mahi mahi is […]

Equuleus is the ancient designation for this small constellation. Even Claudius Ptolemy included it on his maps as the little horse. It’s the second smallest constellation, the record for smallest being held by the southern cross. It’s usually drawn as just a horses head, sometimes peaking out from behind Pegasus. Maybe they’re related, on the […]

Eridanus is a long narrow constellation winding like a river from Orion’s kneecap to points farther south. It is probably named after Eridu, an ancient city in old Babylonia. Over the ages various cultures have given it various names and backstories, almost all of them river-ish. At the southern end of Eridanus the bright blue […]

The constellation Fornax is one those created by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the mid 1700’s to commemorate the enlightenment’s greatest hits. It represents the little furnaces that chemists use in the laboratory to cook things you shouldn’t eat. I’m sure you can order one on Amazon or maybe talk to your local meth dealer. […]

The constellation Grus represents a crane. Please note that we mean the large gangling-legged fish-eating bird, not the big load-lifting construction machine. We’re basically talking three stars here so you can sketch just about anything with a bit of imagination. The brightest stars are named after parts of a fish because the area was carved […]

Hercules is a major constellation and its story goes all the way back to when the ancient Greeks did a major reboot of Gilgamesh. Ptolemy included Hercules in his collection a couple thousand years ago which is how I heard about it. Hercules was a magnificent bastard. His father was a god which right away […]

The constellation Horologium represents a clock and usually is portrayed as one of the old-timey types. Nicolas Louis de Lacaille created it and drew it as a grandfather hall clock with a pendulum and weights. Lacaille added 14 constellations to the map in an effort to flesh out the southern sky. In general he used […]

The largest of all 88 constellations is called Hydra, the water snake. It’s huge. It forms a line that wraps around the sky all the way from the stars of Cancer to those of Libra. If you go out and see the toothy business end just starting to rise in the east, you will wait […]

There is a southern constellation called Hydrus which is not to be confused with the constellation Hydra. They are both water snakes but Hydrus is the lesser water snake in both size and mythical importance, and also it is male. Having two slithering sky serpents confirms the old adage that “snakes travel in pairs” which […]