Star Tales grew out of my skywatching guides for amateur astronomers. As I came to
describe each constellation, I found myself wondering about its origin and the
way in which ancient people had personified it in mythology. Astronomy books
did not contain satisfactory answers. They either gave no mythology at all, or
they recounted stories that, I later discovered, were not true to the Greek and
Roman originals. I decided to write my own book on the mythology of the
constellations. The result
was published in 1988. In this revised and expanded web version it has grown into a
comprehensive biography of the constellations from Ptolemaic times to the
present: not just the 88 officially recognized figures which are described in Chapter Three, but also two dozen others that fell by the wayside, featured in Chapter Four. One enhancement not found in the original book is notes on how Chinese
astronomers visualized the stars, a subject still poorly understood in the
west. Further updates and improvements to these pages are made from time to
time.
Contents
Chapter One: Stars and storytellers
Chapter Two: Star maps
Chapter Three: The celestial eighty-eight (plus two)
Origins, mythology and illustrations of all 88 present-day constellations from
Andromeda to Vulpecula, plus the Milky Way and the aurora
Chapter Four: Obsolete constellations
The true stories behind two dozen now-defunct constellations, including a tiny
bit of scandal concerning a Roman Emperor
Additional reading (links):
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