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O: Modern Western Constellations
32: The constellating of the southern sky
Depiction of the southern constellations in the Harmonia Macrocosmica of the Dutch-German mathematician and cosmographer Andreas Cellarius (circa 1595-1665). The Harmonia Macrocosmica was a folio-sized work first published in 1660. It was a major celestial atlas and considered one of the most spectacular celestial atlases published in the second half of the seventeenth century. Andreas Cellarius was born in Germany but latter settled in Holland.
The 48 classical constellations of the Greeks did not map the entire celestial sphere. Until the end of the 16th-century CE European star charts contained only the 48 constellations canonised by Ptolemy in the 2nd-century CE. The stars of the southern sky which did not rise above the horizon of the ancient Greeks remained un-constellated on European celestial maps until the European voyages to the southern hemisphere in the 16th-century. The 16th-centuy has been termed the Age of Exploration. During the 16th- and 17th-centuries the Dutch, French, and English (and Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian navigators) made numerous voyages of discovery to the southern hemisphere. The result is the origin of the constellations surrounding the South Pole is involved in some obscurity.
The process of constellating the southern celestial sky was begun by Petrus Plancius. He included 2 new southern constellations (Crux (as a separate constellation, the stars of which are given in Ptolemy's Almagest) and Triangulus Antarcticus (Eridanus continued from Ptolemy's 34th star to α Eridani)) on his sky globe published in 1589 and then 2 more (Columba (the stars of which are given in Ptolemy's Almagest) and Polophylax (the figure of a man consisting of 7 stars)) on his sky globe published in 1592. These constellations appeared on his 1594 map of the world (the earliest existing map of the southern heavens) entitled "Orbis terrarum typus de integro multis in locis emendatus Pedro Plancio, 1594." Of the 10 constellations invented by Petrus Plancius 4 are still recognised today.
An influential voyage for the invention and naming of southern constellation on European sky maps was the first Dutch trading expedition of 4 ships which left Holland for the East Indies in 1595.The chief pilot (navigator) on the Hollandia (later on the Mauritius) was Pieter Dirckszoon Keyser (circa 1540-1596). The Dutch navigator Pieter Keyser was adept in both mathematics and astronomy and his cooperation to chart the southern sky was sought by Petrus Plancius. Keyser was trained by Petrus Plancius to chart (using an astrolabe or cross-staff given to him by Plancius) the southern stars in the constellation-free zone around the south celestial pole. Probably he mapped the stars of the southern sky from Madagascar and also perhaps near the island of Sumatra. He was apparently assisted in his observations by the Dutch navigator Frederick de Houtman (1571-1627). Keyser died during the voyage (in September 1596) while the trading fleet was at Banten (western Java). When the trading fleet returned to Holland in 1597 his catalogue of 135 stars, divided into 12 newly invented constellations, was given to Plancius. Plancius then added these constellations to his sky globe published in 1598. (Another version (incorrect) is that Plancius used Keyser's data to form 12 new southern constellations and these were added to his 1598 globe.) Petrus Plancius is the likely source for the southern constellations depicted in Johann Bayer's Uranometria.
The 12 southern constellations created were: Apus, Chamaeleon, Dorado, Grus, Hydrus, Indus, Musca, Pavo, Phoenix, Triangulum Australe, Tucana, and Volans. Some are named after exotic birds such as the toucan, peacock, and phoenix.
Initially the new southern hemisphere constellations appeared on a few celestial globes (1598 globe by Petrus Plancius, 1600 globe (some versions state 1599 or 1601) by Jodocus Hondius, and 1603 globe by Willem Blaeu.) Petrus Plancius (1552-1622) was a Dutch theologian and cartographer; Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612) was a Dutch cartographer; and Willem Blaeu (1571-1638) was also a Dutch cartographer. Jodocus Hondius included Petrus Plancius' new southern constellations on the celestial globe he published in 1600.
The first celestial atlas to include the 12 new southern constellations was the Uranometria by Johann Bayer (a German astronomer) published in 1603. Their appearance in plate 49 of Johann Bayer's celestial atlas canonised their acceptance and use. The Uranometria is considered the first great celestial atlas. It contained a separate plate for each of the 48 traditional constellation figures. It was also based on Tycho Brahe's newly determined star positions and magnitudes. (In his atlas Johann Bayer also devised a cohesive system for designating (labeling) the stars.)
In 1603 Frederick de Houtman published a Catalogue of Southern Stars at the end of his Malay and Madagascan vocabulary, entitled Spraeckende woordboeck Inde Maleysche ende Madagaskarche Talen met vele Arabische ende Turksche woorden. Houtman's catalogue consists of the right ascensions, declinations, and magnitudes of 303 stars. However, 107 stars were already given in Ptolemy's Almagest. The other 196 stars were new discoveries. The astronomer Edward Knobel ("On Frederick de Houtman's Catalogue of Southern Stars, and the Origin of the Southern constellations." (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1917, Volume 77, Pages 414-432.)) concluded that Frederick de Houtman had published as his own work the southern sky observations of the recently deceased navigator Pieter Dircksz Keyzer. This conclusion was researched and supported by the astronomer Helen Hogg (Out of Old Books - "Pieter Dircksz Keijser, Delineator of the Southern Constellations." (Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 1951, Volume 45, Pages 215-220)).
Plate 49 of Johann Bayer's Uranometria shows the constellations Phoenix, Hydrus, Tucana, Grus, Indus, Pavo, Apus, Triangulum Australe, Musca, Chamćleon, Volans, and Doradus. Bayer stated that these particular constellations were observed partly by Amerigo Vespucci, partly by Andrea Corsali and Pedro de Medina, but their places were determined by Petrus Theodorus. (In reality Amerigo Vespucci (Sensuyt le nouveau monde et navigations faictes par Emeric de Vespuce (1510)) contributed no constellations. Andrea Corsali (in two letters dated 1517) described the Greater and Lesser Magellanic Clouds, the 5 stars forming the Southern Cross, and 13 other stars which cannot be identified. Pedro de Medina (Arte de navegar (1545) only makes mention to the stars in the Crux (i.e., determining latitude in the southern hemisphere by observations of α Crucis.) In his Celestial globe, published in 1603, Willem Blaeu attributed all of these constellations to Frederick de Houtman. The eminent astronomer and historian Ludwig Ideler gave equal merit to Petrus Theodorus and Frederick de Houtman.
In 1612 Petrus Plancius published a new sky globe and introduced his 2 newly invented southern constellations Camelopardalis and Monoceros.
A later celestial atlas that introduced new constellations was the Firmamentum Sobiescianum by Johannes Hevelius (a German-Polish astronomer) (1611-1687) published posthumously in1690. It was engraved by Johannes Hevelius himself to accompany his catalogue of over 1500 star positions (and the catalogue was also published posthumously in 1690). Seven of the new southern constellations (visible from mid-northern latitudes) invented by Johannes Hevelius , Johannes (1611-1687) are still recognized today. One of the new constellations included Sextens (the sextant) named for one of his own astronomical instruments (and based on the octant, a measuring instrument). He made very accurate stellar coordinate observations without the use of telescopes.
The French astronomer and surveyor Nicolas Louis de LaCaille (1713-1762) invented 14 southern sky constellations which became standard and are still recognized today. The majority of these new constellations were named after new scientific inventions. Following his visit to the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) in 1750 he introduced them in the Memoires of the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1752 (published in 1756). In his southern star catalogue Coelum Australe Stelliferum, which was published posthumously in 1763) he also introduced the division of Argo Navis into 4 parts, the 4 smaller constellations named Vela (the sail), Pyxis (the compass (but literally "the little box" as there is no Latin word for compass as the Greeks and Romans did not have compasses for navigation)), Puppis (the stern), and Carina (the keel). (The French cartographer Didier Robert de Vaugondy (1723-1826) became the first to actually illustrate (in 1764) Nicolas LaCaille's 4 divisions of Argo Navis. These 4 constellations became the last new constellations to be officially recognised.
The star atlases produced by the 19th-century cartographers Friedrich Argelander (Uranometria Nova, published 1843), and Benjamin Gould (Uranometria Argentina, published 1877-1879), standardised the list of constellations to those we use today. They both followed Nicolas LaCaille and divided Argo Navis (the ship) (Ptolemy's largest constellation) into 4 parts: Vela (the sail), Pyxis (the compass), Puppis (the stern), and Carina (the keel).
The process of constellation invention was continued by numerous other astronomers of the 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-centuries but these constellations were never officially recognised or adopted and quickly disappeared.
References:
Knobel, E. (1917). "On Frederick de Houtman's Catalogue of Southern Stars, and the Origin of the Southern constellations." (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 77).
MacKenzie, T. (1925). "The Story of the Southern constellations." (Journal of the Astronomical Society of South Africa, Volume 1).
Warner, D. (1980). "History of Southern Constellations." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 60).
Copyright © 2007-2008 by Gary D. Thompson
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