Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille was a French astronomer noted for his catalogue of nearly 10,000 southern stars. He mapped great swaths of sky and defined the constellations that had once lain hidden from the eyes of the ancient world. He saw them first . . . and he gave them all unbelievably shitty names.
In chronicalling the drama that played out each night against the celestrial sphere, the Greeks had drawn upon their culture and the world around them: a world of nature, magical creatures, and gods.
Lacaille looked around his room and gave us . . . The Telescope, The Furnace, and The Clock.
For the curious here's the complete list of constellations named by Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. I will admit that the Latin names do add a tiny bit of poetry to the mundane, but they are so very mundane!
ReplyDeleteANTLIA
The Air Pump
CAELUM
The Birin, an instrument for engraving on copper
CIRCINUS
The Drawing Compasses
FORNAX
The Furnace
HOROLOGIUM
The Clock
MENSA
The Table Mountain, which I'll give him, since he actually had to look out the window to see this one.
MICROSCOPIUM
The Microscope
NORMA ET RUGULUM
The Level and Square
OCTANS
The Octant
PICTOR
The Painter's Easel
PYXIS
The Compass, the magnetic kind
RETICULUM
The Reticle, which was the grid he'd place in the eyepiece of his telescope to determine the position of those 10,000 stars.
SCULPTOR
The Sculptor's Studio
TELESCOPIUM
The Telescope
Posted to dVerse Poets Pub—Contrast.
ReplyDeleteha nice...how boring the names...something so common...which is def a contrast to what i see when i look to the stars....
ReplyDeleteHe mapped great swaths of sky -> now that is a cool way to put it.
ReplyDeletehave you seen my space poetry?
also, this was a cool exercise on the constellation Orion Orion's Armament
Sounds like a list my father would like. He was devoted to the workings of the furnace and I inherited the smallest of his levels. (Not that it was in a will. That'd be just a bit much!)
ReplyDeleteOh, but I think there's something so poetic about Latin. Interesting info. Thanks.
ReplyDelete