Star Map

First version

More Celestial Maps

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 part 2

I'm currently thinking of staging a kind of mini exhibition probably on the ceiling of one of the uni buildings or hanging from trees in the park. The exhibition would show some major northern hemisphere January / winter star constellations that the viewer would be able to look for in the sky straight above their heads. I would probably redraw the map myself and simplify it to only include stars visible with the naked eye (maybe a challenge as Manchester has so much light pollution!).

January stars

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.