dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (03/17/85)
Ancient Chinese star mappers saw four giant animals in the heavens. More on Chinese stargazing -- after this. March 17 Chinese Constellations The names we use today for constellations in the northern hemisphere came from classical Greek and Roman sources. Astronomers in ancient China saw the same stars -- but grouped them into different patterns. Early Chinese sky watchers centered their circular star maps on the north pole star. A central area was marked out by the very important circumpolar stars -- the stars which never set below the horizon. The rest of the sky was divided into four quarters -- each represented by an animal -- the Blue Dragon, the White Tiger, the Spirit Tortoise, and the Red Bird. These Chinese star-animals are gigantic compared to the Greek constellations. For example, the Red Bird -- also known as the legendary Phoenix -- stretched across the sky between the constellations we call Gemini and Virgo. Within each animal quarter there were dozens of asterisms -- small star patterns that were assigned specific images or characteristics. One of our modern asterisms is the Big Dipper -- a distinct pattern of seven stars within the constellation Ursa Major. But Ursa Major contains many more stars than just the Big Dipper. Even when a pattern might have looked similar to the ancient Greeks and the Chinese -- their interpretations of the pattern were often very different. For instance, the Greeks said that the stars in their constellation Gemini represented twin boys. The Chinese thought of that star pattern as a water well! So constellations, like beauty, prove to be in the eye of the beholder. Script by Diana Hadley. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin