Last Friday's "quote" article on this blog featured one by philosopher Alan Watts, who claimed that we don't have a problem with how constellations are arranged...I had to object. Above is a prime example of what I mean. Most of the 88 officially recognized constellations...star patterns representing different regions on the celestial map...are insignificant and faint, chiefly devised by two astronomers: Hevelius and Lacaille. Hevelius is responsible for the above abomination, one barely-fourth magnitude star and a background of faint stars with one Messier deep-sky object, a planetary nebula called M27. The other dots on the above map are just background stars too dim for the naked eye to make out. Alpha Vulpeculae, commonly known as Anser (goose in German), has an appropriate name: Hevelius dubbed it that to represent the goose that the fox allegedly was holding in its mouth...question is, where is the fox? I have never discerned Vulpecula in the night sky...it is situated just south of prominent Cygnus in the Milky Way and just north of Delphinus and Sagitta. The latter two are also a bit small in my opinion to be proper constellations...what they should have done was to combine Vulpecula, Sagitta, Delphinus, and nearby Equuleus to form a separate constellation, connect the dots and come up with something more recognizable. But I'm left with what is already out there...Anser, by the way, is a red giant nearly 300 light years from us. Next month I'll try to dig up a more significant constellation to discuss for October...
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