Constellations, myths, myth busters and myth making

“They must have been invented by a bunch of drunks at the end of a long night!”

That’s all-too-typical of comments on the classical constellations that I hear from people to whom I’m introducing the night sky – and I don’t blame them, though I think they have it all wrong.

It’s true, with most constellations you just can’t connect the dots and get a picture. The “W” of Cassiopeia looks like a “W” – or an “M” – but not a queen. Can you find the familiar "W" of stars in this 1825 illustration?

And Perseus, the gallant wrrior who holds the severed head head of Medusa, looks like an arc of three stars with a few more disconnected ones in the neighborhood.

But the myth busters have it all wrong and the classic constellations take a bum wrap because in our intensely literal society we want to connect the dots - and we don't connect them, we hold that the ancients who created them were either fools or drunbks. We make the totally unfounded assumption that in ancient times people did connect the dots and see these figures in the sky as depicted in classical drawings on classical star maps.

The point we miss is this: These are representations, not depictions. The stars “represent” Cassiopeia in the mind of an ancient story teller – they don’t depict her and I don’t think they were ever intended to depict anything – except in our imaginations as we hear their stories. What’s more, I just got fresh insight into the myth building process at it’s creative best as my wife , Brenda, latched onto the Fox’s Coat Hanger” with great glee. Following directions - I'll include them at the end of this post - she had found this neat little asterism with binoculars and she turned to me, saying: “I can just see him now. He comes in from the hunt, his bushy tail curving up behind his back with the white tip dangling almost over his head. He looks especially spiffy with his little red hunt coat, complete with brass buttons. Meticulously he undoes them, slips the coat off, and puts it on his coat hanger – the Fox’s Coat Hanger.,”

Yes! See that wonderful little verbal image popped whole out of her imagination and she shared it, inspired by what ? By a pattern of 10 stars which you can see only with binociulars. They don’t look like a fox. They don’t look like a red coat. They do look like a traditional, old coat hanger and this.gorgeous little asterism is part of an obscure constellation known as Vulpecula - Latin for fox. The asterism is known variously as “Brocchi’s Coluster” the “Fox’s Coat Hanger,” or simply “the coat hanger.” Here’s what it looks like in Starry Nights planetarium software:

The brighter stars are naked eye visibility if you have excellent visiona and a great, dark-sky site. But for most of us this calls for binoculars and the red circle represents a typical binocular field. It’s really a little gem and gives one great satisfaction to track down. That's not hard either and I’ll give directions in moment in case you’ve never seen it.

But first I want to get depper into this myth making – and myth busting – theme. The myth I want to lay to rest is that the constellations are supposed to look like the classic depictions of them. In a few cases – most notably Orion – you can connect the dots (stars) and get a stick figure that looks something like what it's name implies. But in most instances this just isn’t the case.

Here’s how the wonderful cards from “Urania’s Mirror,” an 1825 guide to the constellations, depicts Vulpecula along with nearby constellations. The stars are more than a bit exaggerated,, but do you think you could conenct them and see a fox running with a goose in his mouth? I doubt it. In fact, I doubt you could even see most of them, especially from a suburb, But not meant to depict! In fact, I pity anyone who tried to use these cards - or any such image - to learn the night sky. Learn themyths, by all means - they're wonderful. But don't connect the dots. In this case I don't know the myth and "Urania's Mirror" is no help, but I can't help wondering if it was inspired by - or perhaps inspired - my favorite folk song called "The Fox." It begins this way:

The fox went out on a windy night,
Prayed for the moon to give him light —
He'd many a mile to go that night
Before he reached the town-o,
Town-o, town-o,
He'd many a mile to go that night
Before he reached the town-o.

He ran til he came to a big round pen —
The ducks and the geese were kept therein —
Said, "A couple o' you're gonna grease my chin
Before I leave this town-o
Town-o, town-o,
A couple o' you're gonna grease my chin
Before I leave this town-o."

He grabbed the grey goose by the neck,
Throwed a duck across his back,
He didn't mind the quack-quack-quack
And the legs all dangling down-o
Down-o, down-o,
He didn't mind the quack-quack-quack
And the legs all dangling down-o.

For 1825 I find"Urania's Mirror" an impressive publishing effort. . In modern terms, however, I prefer the way Starry Nights handles the constellation image - though it still is highly imaginable. Here it is, along with the official constellation boundaries that were set by international agreement in the 1930s. There isn’t a star here bright enough to get even a Greek letter designation, let alone a name!

OK – see that corner ahead of where the head of the goose dangles? That’s where the coat hanger fits. It does belong to Vulpecula . All nice and legal like. (A constellation, by the way, actuallyd oes have such official boundaries and 88 of them cover the entire sky. Asterisms, on the other hand, are just neat, informal patterns of stars that when you connect the dots really look like something and help you find your way about the night sky. The most famous asterism is the Big Dipper.)

But tell me honeslty now – if you saw the coat hanger would you dream up this story of this little fox, in from the hunt – and I hope you noticed the role reversal – the fox is wearing a hunt coat – not the noble fox hunters! What I’m getting at is Bren saw the asterism, she connected it with the shapeless constellation of “the Fox” and boom – instant myth. No way can you connect the dots and get anything except a coat hanger. But I’ll remember her story. And it’s not at all hard for me to imagine the members of some culture with a strong oral tradition trading such stories as they looked at the stars. Sure they made some patterns of some of them. But they also let their imaginations go. The stars don’t depeict anything – they simply represent it, and there’s a huge difference. You can say that group of barely visible stars there between Cygnus and Sagitta, the arrow – that group represents the fox. Now let me tell you about that particular fox. He’s quite a hip gent. He lives in a wonderful den, and his pride and joy is his red, brass-buttoned hunt coat – in fact, you can see where he loves to hang it , over in this corner . . . “

Bottom line? Stop trying to connect the dots in a constellation and instead enjopy theimaginative stories for which groups of stars represented to ancient cultures. and don’t put down the constellations because they don’t look like what you think they should look like. They are just memory joggers foran ancient story-telling civilization – a veritable library in the sky. Hey – think of sky as the Web and the constellations as a bit like Google – but instead of typing in a search word, you point to a distinctive group of stars and you say – "those stars always remind me of Perseus. You know Perseus, the …."

Oh- and those promised directions.

If you know the first thing about the summer/fall sky you are familiar with the asterism known as the "summer triangle." It is marked by the three bright stars Deneb, Vega, and Altair. In this particular case all you need is Vega and Altair. Here’s a chart - they're high overhead just after it gets dark on these septemeber nights. Look for the brightest star forst - that's Vega.

Now focus your binoculars on Altair and start moving along the line towards Vega. This is a rich region of the Milky Way so you’ll see a lot of stars. But the coat hanger will jump out at you. All you have to do is go about one-third of the distance from Altair to Vega.

Hope you find it! And when you do, think about that satisfied little fox in his den, knowing his red coat is secure and that he’s become the key player in a modern myth!