Phoenix (constellation) - History

History

Phoenix was the largest of the twelve constellations created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman and it first appeared on a 35-cm diameter celestial globe published in 1597 (or 1598) in Amsterdam by Plancius with Jodocus Hondius. The first depiction of this constellation in a celestial atlas was in Johann Bayer's Uranometria of 1603.

The same group of stars was imagined by the Arabs as a boat, Al Zaurak, on the nearby river Eridanus. It was also seen to represent Young Ostriches Al Ri'āl, or as a griffin or eagle. Phoenix and the neighbouring constellation of Grus together were seen to portray Aaron the High Priest by Julius Schiller.

Read more about this topic:  Phoenix (constellation)

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.
    Henry James (1843–1916)

    I am not a literary man.... I am a man of science, and I am interested in that branch of Anthropology which deals with the history of human speech.
    —J.A.H. (James Augustus Henry)

    What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.
    Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)