Stargazing Guy

We all know there are 12 star signs or signs of the zodiac.

The 12 astrological star signs are evenly spread across the calendar:

The date of your birth is meant to have an impact on your personality, behaviours, love life, career, etc. – every newspaper carries a horoscope trying to predict your destiny!

But its possible that the star sign you think you are, is not true!

When you actually look at the sky you may note something funny – here are the astronomical zodiac signs:

As you can see there are 13 star signs – and also the constellations aren’t spread evenly across the calendar.

So, any Sagittarians (22 Nov-21 Dec – according to astrologers) out there may actually be Ophiuchus-ians – never seen a prediction for them!

Western culture divides the celestial sphere into 88 areas of various sizes called constellations, each with a precise boundary, issued by the International Astronomical Union. These constellations have become the standard way to describe the sky, replacing similar sets from other sky cultures in daily usage:

Credit: By Cmglee, Timwi, NASA – Own work, http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003500/a003572, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27881844

Useful to remember one or two – in case of a Pub Quiz!

Other cultures across human history have named stars, planets and constellations differently – all for the same reasons of mythology, religion and practicality.

One fascinating sky culture is Polynesian star lore and specifically Hawaiian Star lines. These are related to the revival of voyaging and non-instrument navigation (wayfinding) across the Pacific Ocean.

The wayfinder memorizes the position of stars on the celestial sphere to use them as directional clues when they rise and set. On cloudy nights, when only parts of the sky are visible, he may recognize isolated stars or star groups and imagine the rest of the celestial sphere around them.

To help remember the pattern of stars in the sky, the sky has been organized into four star lines, each line taking up about one fourth of the night sky:

1. Ke Ka o Makali‘i (“The Canoe-Bailer of Makali‘i”)
2. Iwikuamo‘o (“Backbone”)
3. Manaiakalani (“The Chief’s Fishline”)
4. Ka Lupe o Kawelo (“The Kite of Kawelo”)

https://archive.hokulea.com/ike/hookele/hawaiian_star_lines.html

The revival was partly to try an understand how the Polynesians were able to navigate without instruments, guiding themselves across ocean distances of 2500 miles.

Its an amazing insight into what the stars can do for humanity – and there are many other star cultures. More information on the Polynesian Voyaging Society is available here: https://www.hokulea.com/

Other star cultures will be featured on this site in the future.

PS: I love coffee. BuyMeACoffee, leave a message with a date and time and we can share it, remotely, at the same time, and think about the Cosmos.

In the meantime, take care of yourself and if you can, someone else, too, because as Adam Smith said, “we naturally desire not only to be loved but to be lovely”.