Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille

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.
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6 comments:

  1. Roy SchulzeMarch 31, 2010 at 5:07 PM

    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!

    ANTLIA
    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

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  2. Roy SchulzeDecember 23, 2011 at 12:11 AM

    Posted to dVerse Poets Pub—Contrast.

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  3. Brian MillerDecember 23, 2011 at 12:54 AM

    ha nice...how boring the names...something so common...which is def a contrast to what i see when i look to the stars....

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  4. AnonymousDecember 23, 2011 at 1:06 AM

    He mapped great swaths of sky -> now that is a cool way to put it.

    have you seen my space poetry?

    also, this was a cool exercise on the constellation Orion Orion's Armament

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  5. Kathy B.December 23, 2011 at 2:04 PM

    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!)

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  6. VictoriaDecember 23, 2011 at 6:05 PM

    Oh, but I think there's something so poetic about Latin. Interesting info. Thanks.

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