The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-04-27
[To BE CONTINUED.
THE CONSULTATIONS.
Origin of the Figures which Appear in
stellar Maps.
From az Rochester Democrnt.

Stellar Maps.
From the Rochester Democrat.
Prof. Edward S. Holden of the Lick OBJ
servatory in recent contribution to the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific, stated
the origin of the constellation figures whGh
appear in the modern star maps. These
figures are familiar TO almost every student
of astronomy through the well known maps
OF Burritt. The figures in the Burritt maps
are usually printed in tints. The outlines
of the figures resemble in some respects the
fine illustrations of Homer by Flaxman.
Prof. Holden says the figures of the con-
stelatons were by Albert Durer the great
German painter. The fact is not stated by
the painters biographers, and the identity
of the artist who drew the figures is not
generally known to students of astronomy.
These figures will have greater interest for
students from this time forward. Some of
the figures of the consultations are of very
remote antiquity, several consultations
being mentioned in the early Hebrew
scriptures.
Figures were added from time to time by
different astronomers up to the tins of the
invention of the telescope, which is now
among the consultations. One of the Ptol-
emies added BerenIce's Hair to the list
Berenice was common name for the wives
and sisters of the Ptolemies. Hipparchus
had arranged many of the figures of con-
stellation 1877 years b. G. Claudius Ptolemy,
the great astronomer of Alexandria in the
second century of the christian era, contin-
ued the work of Hipparchus, and prepared
celestial globes with the figures Of an
cient times in their proper places. The
globes of Ptolemy were lost when the great
institutions of learning in Alexandria we're
destroyed. The Arabian astronomers alone
preserved the groupings of Ptolemy's fig
.l,l& TO-. IL.
ton to generation. Some Of the Arabian
copies dating back to the thirteenth century
are still in existence Ptolemy describes
forty-eight consultations in distinction
from such consultations as the telescope
and other modern devices have revealed.
In 1915, according to Lelande, Albert
Durer published at Nuremberg two star
maps with figures drawn by himself and
engraved on wood. The maps represented
the two hemispheres of the heavens, and
the stars were located by Heinfogel, a
mathematician of Nuremberg. Durer was
himse II a geometrlciaD and greatly inter-
ested in scientific research, having written
q treatise on geometry and fortification.
The figures drawn by Durer have not been
changed to any great extent in all the
copies that have been made. These figures
appear in Argelander's star maps of 1913,
aud in the star atlas, by Heis, of 1872
Several American star maps copy these
Fl cures with slight changes. Some en-
gravers, however, have made the figures
more elaborate than the originals. In some
maps the figures are quite graceful, with an
expression Of animation.
A few modern map-makers have dis
pensed with the figures altogether, giving
merely the boundaries of the consultations
This neglect of the classical figures is to be
regretted, especially in elementary works
On ast34onnmV Working aStrOuOmars do