Orion constellation from Johannes Hevelius' Prodromus astronomiae, Firmamentum Sobiescianum, sive Uranographia, 1687. Orion is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous a
Orion constellation from Johannes Hevelius' Prodromus astronomiae, Firmamentum Sobiescianum, sive Uranographia, 1687. Orion is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous and most recognizable constellations in the night sky. Orion was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union. The stars of Orion were associated with Osiris, the sun god of rebirth and afterlife, by the ancient Egyptians. In artistic renderings, the surrounding constellations are sometimes related to Orion: he is depicted standing next to the river Eridanus with his two hunting dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor, fighting Taurus. Lepus is to the south, Monoceros to the east, and Gemini to the northeast. He also sometimes is depicted to have a lion's hide in his hand. The Hevelius Firmamentum was the first star atlas to rival Bayer's Uranometria in accuracy, utility, innovation, and influence. Hevelius was perhaps the most active observational astronomer of the last half of the seventeenth century. His star atlas is notable for many reasons. It contains 56 large, double page engraved star maps. The star positions for the charts were derived from his own star catalog, based on his own observations, which was first published along with the atlas. It is unique among the Grand Atlases in choosing to depict the constellations as they would appear on a globe, that is, from the outside looking in, rather than from a geocentric point of view, as Bayer and most others adopted.
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