Celestial Atlas and Atlas Coelistis

From discovering Urania's Mirror I also discovered Celestial Atlas (1822) by Alexander Jamieson...



Ursa Major

Canis Major, Canis Minor, Monoceros, Argo Navis, l’Atelier de l’Imprimeur, Pyxis Nautica



...and Atlas Coelistis by John Flamsteed (1776)
 

Constellation map of Northern Hemisphere



Urania's Mirror

While I was researching northern hemisphere constellations for my information board for the site project I came across Urania's Mirror. It is a set of 32 constellation cards first published around 1852 and  it has really strange, gorgeous illustrations produced with an amazing, restrained colour palette.

Virgo



Noctua, Corvus, Crater, Sextans Uraniae, Hydra, Felis, Lupus, Centaurus, Antlia Pneumatica, Argo Navis, and Pyxis Nautica



Psalterium Georgii, Fluvius Eridanus, Cetus, Officina Sculptoris, Fornax Chemica, and Machina Electrica

Draco and Ursa Minor



Cassiopeia



Site project beginnings

From The Lancashire Witches by  John Gilbert

I started thinking about what I'd like to produce / think about for the Site project by first thinking of things nI've been interested in recently, mainly mythology and basic astronomy. I first looked at some pieces of English folklore to see if there were any I felt I could relate to a space around university. I then decided I'd like to be a bit more specific and looked to see if there was any old myths relating to Manchester but I only managed to find a list of old Lancashire folklore. There were a number of interesting stories such as the trials of the Samlesbury witches and mythical creatures such as the 'Gytrash' (ghostly black dog said to haunt quiet roads in Northern England and mentioned in Jane Eyre). None of these really clicked or made me want to look into them further though. Currently thinking of coming up with my own myths to relate to this project, currently thinking of using either a bench or a tree in All Saints Park but I'll see how things progress as I do some more research.

Sky Goddess

While I'm on the topic of mythology, here's my favourite of all the Gods / Goddesses; Nut the Ancient Egyptian Sky Goddess (chilling with her brother-husband Geb the Earth God, the guy laying on the floor)

All the Books

I've been reading loads lately and have decided to occasionally record some of my favourites on this here blog.

Recently I've been dipping in and out of National Geographic's 'Essential Visual History of World Mythology'. I've had an interest in mythology since i was in about Year 3 and got obsessively into The Egyptians when we studied them at school. I learnt an entire alphabet of hieroglyphs off by heart. (I know the ancient Egyptians didn't use a Roman alphabet but come on, it was Year 3). Egyptian mythology is still my favourite to read about although I've also enjoyed learning about Norse mythology (I had a primary school Viking phase too). I think studying up on mythology will also help with my Contextualising Practice summative essay which i'm going to write on 'Feminism and the Fairy Tale'. A lot of what I'm going to be reading / writing in the next few months will concern European folklore and mythology but it can't hurt to have a basic understanding of the rest of the world's myths and legends either as many of the stories are similar but with slight variations on names / places.

In relation to this I've started reading Grimm's Fairy Tales and plan to read Hans Christian (sadly my copies doesn't have as amazing covers as these ones do!)

WebRep

currentVote

noRating

noWeight

I've recently reread The Hobbit before I went to see this film (both brilliant and full o' Norse mythology) and am currently reading Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami for something completely mythology free.