CONSTELLATIONS

, certain imaginary sigures of birds, beasts, fishes, and other things in the heavens, within which are arranged certain stars. These assemblages are also sometimes called asterisms.

The ancients portioned out the firmament into several parts, or constellations; reducing a certain number of stars under the representation of certain images, to assist the imagination and memory, to conceive or retain their number, order, and disposition, or even to distinguish the virtues they attributed to them.

The division of the heavens into constellations is very ancient; being known to the most early authors, whether sacred or profane. In the book of Job the names of some of them are mentioned; witness that sublime expostulation, Canst thou restrain the sweet influence of the Pleiades, or loosen the bands of Orion? And the same may be observed of the oldest among the heathen writers, Hesiod and Homer.

The division of the ancients took in only the visible firmament, or so much as came under their notice, as visible to the naked eye. The first or earliest of these, is contained in the catalogue of Ptolomy, given in the 7th book of his Almagest, prepared, as he assures us, from his own observations, compared with those of Hipparchus, and the other ancient astronomers. In this catalogue Ptolomy has formed 48 constellations. Of these, 12 are about the ecliptic, commonly called the 12 signs; 21 to the north of it; and 15 to the south. The northern constellations are, the Little Bear, the Great Bear, the Dragon, Cepheus, Bootes, the Northern Crown, Hercules, the Harp, the Swan, Cassiopeia, Perseus, Auriga, Ophiucus or Serpentary, the Serpent, the Arrow, the Eagle, the Dolphin, the Horse, Pegasus, Andromeda, and the Triangle.

The constellations about the ecliptic are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces: or according to the English names, the Ram, the Bull, the Twins, the Crab, the Lion, the Virgin, the Balance, the Scorpion, the Archer, the Goat, the Water bearer, and the Fishes.

The Southern constellations are, the Whale, Orion, the Eridanus, the Hare, the Great Dog, the Little Dog, the Ship, the Hydra, the Cup, the Raven, the Centaur, the Wolf, the Altar, the Southern Crown, and the Southern Fish.

The other stars not comprehended under these constellations, yet visible to the naked eye, the ancients called informes, or sporades, some of which the modern astronomers have since reduced into new figures, or constellations. Ptolomy has set down the longitude and latitude of all these stars to about the year of Christ 137, amounting to the number of 1022, viz,

Among the modern astronomers, Tycho Brahe is the | first who determined, with exactness, and in consequence of his own observations, the long. and lat. of the fixed stars, out of which he formed 45 constellations; of these, 43 were of the old ones described by Ptolomy, to which Tycho added the Coma Berenices, and Antinous; but he omits 5 of the old southern constellations, viz, the Centaur, the Wolf, the Altar, the Southern Crown, and Southern Fish; which he could not observe, because of the high northern latitude of Uranibourg.

After Tycho, Bayer gave the figures of 60 constellations, very exactly represented, and with tables annexed, having added, to the 48 old ones of Ptolomy, the following 12 about the south pole, viz, the Peacock, the Toucan, the Crane, the Phœnix, the Dorado, the Flying Fish, the Hydra, the Chameleon, the Bee, the Bird of Paradise, the Triangle, and the Indian. Besides accurately distinguishing the relative size and the situation of every star, Bayer marks the stars in each constellation with the letters of the Greek and Roman alphabets, setting the first letter a to the first or principal star in each constellation, b to the 2d in order, g to the 3d, and so on; a very useful method of noting and describing the stars, which has been used by all astronomers since, and who have farther enlarged this method, by adding the ordinal numbers 1, 2, 3, &c, to the other stars discovered since his time, when any constellation contains more than can be marked by the two alphabets. The number and order of the stars, as mentioned by Bayer, are,

After Bayer, a catalogue, with new constellations, was published by Schiller, in 1627, in a work called Coelum Stellatum Christianum, the Christian Starry Heaven, in which he substitutes, very improperly, other sigures of the constellations, and names, taken from the sacred scriptures, instead of the old ones.

In the year 1665, Riccioli published his Astronomy Reformed, containing a catalogue of the stars in 62 constellations, viz, the 60 of Bayer, with the Coma Berenices and Antinous of Tycho. He distributes the stars in all the constellations into four classes. In the first of these classes are contained those stars determined by his own observations, and those of Grimaldi. In the second are those stars which had been ascertained by Tycho Brahe and Kepler. In the 3d are the stars determined by Hipparchus and Ptolomy. And the 4th class consists of those of the southern hemisphere discovered by Navigators, who have ascertained their places in a more or less accurate manner; in which he has marked the longitudes and latitudes for the year 1700, the period to which he has reduced all his observations. This catalogue was followed by a number of celestial schemes and maps of the heavens, published in 1673 by Pardies, who has represented very carefully all the constellations, with the stars they contain. After this, Vi- talis published a catalogue of the sixed stars in his Tables of the Primum Mobile, in which their longitudes and latitudes, with the right-ascensions and declinations are set down for the year 1675.

Some time after this, Royer published maps of the heavens, reduced into 4 tables, with a catalogue of the fixed stars for the year 1700. To the stars marked by Bayer, he adds a number of stars not before seen, with others taken from the tables of Riccioli, and not mentioned by Bayer: he also forms, out of the unformed stars, eleven other constellations. Five of these are to the north, and are called the Giraffe, the River Jordan, the River Tigris, the Sceptre, and the Flower-de-luce; with 6 on the south part, which are the Dove, the Unicorn, the Cross, the Great Cloud, the Little Cloud, and the Rhomboide. To this work Royer has joined the catalogue of the southern stars observed by Dr. Halley at the island of St. Helena.

Hevelius has also improved upon the labours of those who went before him, and collected together several stars of the before unformed class into some new constellations. These are, the Unicorn, the Camelopardalis, described by Bartschius, the Sextant of Urania, the Dogs, the Little Lion, the Lynx, the Fox and Goose, the Sobieski's Crown, the Lizard, the Little Triangle, and the Cerberus; to which Gregory has added the Ring and the Armilla. Some of these new constellations however answer to those of Royer, as the Camelopardal to the Giraffe, the Dogs to the River Jordan, and the Fox to the River Tigris. The latitudes and longitudes are added for the year 1700.

Finally, Flamsteed has given a catalogue of the fixed stars, not only much more correct, but much larger than those of all that went before him. He has set down the longitude, latitude, right ascension, and polar distance of 2934 stars, as they were at the beginning of 1690, all determined from his own observations. He distinguishes all the stars into seven classes, or orders of magnitude, distinguishing those of Bayer by his letters, and marking their variation in right ascension, for shewing their situation in the succeeding years. See the term Catalogue.

This catalogue was followed by an Atlas Cœlestis, published at London in the year 1729, describing, in several schemes, the figures of the constellations seen in our hemisphere, with the exact position of the fixed stars, with respect to the circles of the sphere, as resulting from the last catalogue corrected by Flamsteed. And still later observations, made with farther improved telescopes, have greatly enlarged the number and accuracy of the stars; but the number of the constellations remains the same as above described, except that an attempt has lately been made by Dr. Hill to add to the list 14 new ones, formed out of more of the clusters of unformed stars.

Beside the literal marks of the stars introduced by Bayer, it is usual also to distinguish them by that part of the constellation in which they are placed; and many of them again have their peculiar names; as Arcturus, between the knees of Bootes; Gemina, or Lucida, in the Corona Septentrionalis, or Northern Crown; Palilitium, or Aldebaran, in the Bull's eye, Pleiades in his neck, and Hyades in his forehead; Castor and Pollux in the heads of Gemini; Capella, with the Hœdi in the | shoulder of Auriga; Regulus, or Cor Leonis, the Lion's Heart; Spica Virginis in the hand, and Vindemiatrix in the shoulder of Virgo; Antares, or Cor Scorpionis, the Scorpion's Heart; Fomalhaut, in the mouth of Piscis Australis, or Southern Fish; Regel, in the foot of Orion; Sirius, in the mouth of Canis Major, the Great Dog; Procyon, in the back of Canis Minor, the Little Dog; and the Pole Star, the last in the tail of Ursa Minor, the Little Bear.

The Greek and Roman poets, from the ancient theology, give wild and romantic fables about the origin of the constellations, probably derived from the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, and transmitted, with some alterations, from them to the Greeks, who probably obscured them greatly with their own fables. See Hyginus's Poeticon Astron.; Riccioli Almagest. lib. 6. cap. 3, 4, 5; Shelburne's Notes upon Manilius; Bailly's Antient Astronomy; and Gebelin's Monde Primitif, vol. 4: from the whole of which it is made probable, that the invention of the signs of the zodiac, and probably of most of the other constellations of the sphere, is to be ascribed to some very ancient nation, inhabiting the northern temperate zone, probably what is now called Tartary, or the parts to the northward of Persia and China; and from thence transmitted through China, India, Babylon, Arabia, Egypt, Greece, &c.

It is a very probable conjecture, that the figures of the signs in the zodiac, are descriptive of the seasons of the year, or months, in the sun's path: thus, the first sign Aries, denotes, that about the time when the sun enters that part of the ecliptic, the lambs begin to follow the sheep; that on the sun's approach to the 2d constellation, Taurus, the Bull, is about the time of the cows bringing forth their young. The third sign, now Gemini, was originally two kids, and signified the time of the goats bringing forth their young, which are usually two at a birth, while the former, the sheep and cow, commonly produce only one. The 4th sign, Cancer, the Crab, an animal that goes side-ways and backwards, was placed at the northern solstice, the point where the sun begins to return back again from the north to the southward. The 5th sign, Leo, the Lion, as being a very furious animal, was thought to denote the heat and fury of the burning sun, when he has left Cancer, and entered the next sign Leo. The succeeding constellation, the 6th in order, received the sun at the time of ripening corn and approaching harvest; which was aptly expressed by one of the female reapers, with an ear of corn in her hand; viz, Virgo the maid. The ancients gave to the next sign Scorpio, two of the 12 divisions of the zodiac: Autumn, which affords fruits in great abundance, affords the means and causes of diseases, and the succeeding time is the most unhealthy of the year; expressed by this venemous animal, here spreading out his long claws into the one sign, as threatening mischief, and in the other brandishing his tail to denote the completion of it. The fall of the leaf was the season of the ancient hunting; for which reason the stars which marked the sun's place at this season, into the constellation Sagittary, a huntsman with his arrows and his club, the weapons of destruction for the large creatures he pursued. The reason of the Wild Goat's being chosen to mark the southern sol- stice, when the sun has attained his extreme limit that way, and begins to return and mount again to the northward, is obvious enough; the character of that animal being, that it is mostly climbing, and ascending some mountain as it browzes. There yet remain two of the signs of the zodiac to be considered with regard to their origin, viz, Aquarius and Pisces. As to the former, it is to be considered that the winter is a wet and uncomfortable season; this therefore was expressed by Aquarius, the figure of a man pouring out water from an urn. The last of the zodiacal constellations was Pisces, a couple of fishes, tied together, that had been caught: The lesson was, the severe season is over, your flocks do not yet yield their store; but the seas and rivers are open, and there you may take fish in abundance.

Through a vain and blind zeal, rather than through any love for the science, some persons have been moved to alter either the figures of the constellations, or their names. Thus, venerable Bede, instead of the profane names and figures of the twelve zodiacal constellations, substituted those of the 12 apostles; which example was followed by Schiller, who completed the reformation, and gave scripture names to all the constellations in the heavens. Thus, Aries, or the Ram, was changed into Peter; Taurus, or the Bull, into St. Andrew; Andromeda, into the Sepulchre of Christ; Lyra, into the Manger of Christ; Hercules, into the Magi coming from the East; the Great Dog, into David; and so on. And Weigelius, professor of Mathematics in the uni versity of Jena, made a new order of constellations; changing the firmament into a Cœlum Heraldicum; and introducing the arms of all the princes in Europe, by way of constellations. Thus Ursa major, the Great Bear, he transformed into the elephant of the kingdom of Denmark; the Swan, into the Ruta with swords of the House of Saxony; Ophiuchus, into the Cross of Cologne; the Triangle, into Compasses, which he calls the Symbol of Artificers; and the Pleiades into the Abacus Pythagoricus, which he calls that of merchants; &c.

But the more judicious among astronomers never approved of such innovations; as they only tend to introduce confusion into astronomy. The old constellations are therefore still retained; both because better could not be substituted, and likewise to keep up the greater correspondence and uniformity between the old astronomy and the new. See Catalogue.