1<h2>Western: H.A. Rey</h2> 2 3<h4> Introduction</h4> 4 5<p>During the 19th century the use and further editions of richly 6illustrated atlases with sumptuously engraved mythological figures 7fell out of fashion. The stars of the constellations in atlases of 8that time started to be shown connected with line patterns ("stick 9figures"), which however appear sometimes only to have been used to 10indicate which stars belong to which constellation. Over several 11decades the figures had ceased to resemble the figures they were named 12after and appeared incomprehensible to beginning stargazers in the 13middle of the 20th century.</p> 14 15<p><img src="Rey_cover.png" width="150" align="right"/> 16H. A. Rey (Hans Augusto Reyersbach) (1898-1977), an artist and author 17of children's books of German descent but emigrated to the USA, 18published his answer to this problem in 1952 with the book <em>The 19Stars - A New Way To See Them</em>.</p> 20 21 22<h4>The Constellations</h4> 23 24<p>In this book, which has become very popular especially in the US, 25Rey connected the stars of every constellation "in such a way that the 26resulting shape makes sense." What surprised him was "that nobody has 27done it before. The basic idea is so simple." </p> 28 29<p>Rey's new stick figures make it indeed very simple to recognize the 30depicted constellation figures. Rey's work does not include figurative 31artwork, therefore this sky culture deliberately only comes with Rey's 32original stick figures. The constellation names were also always 33given in English by Rey. If you switch to "Native" name display mode, you 34may see exactly the spelling used in his book. Also the stars named 35here are limited to those included in the book.</p> 36 37<h4>Rey's Figures and the Classic Constellations</h4> 38 39<p>Rey's constellations adhere to the tradition of the Western sky 40culture and describes the 88 officially acknowledged constellations, 41with addition of asterisms of the two Dippers and the "Great Square" 42(of Pegasus). However, at several points Rey's figures deviate from 43the canonical figures described since Ptolemy's Almagest (2nd century 44AD), where also positions of the stars in their constellations had 45been described in their names. For example, <ul> 46 47<li> Rey inverted the figure of the Great Bear (<em>Ursa Major</em>) 48to look like a polar bear scenting prey. This on one hand does not 49have the usual problem to explain its long tail. On the other hand, 50the bear is not shown to walk around the pole in this 51orientation.</li> 52 53<li>The Bull (<em>Taurus</em>), only the front of which is shown with 54long upright horns in usual depictions, is shown with a complete body 55including its tail, with horns stretched wide like those of a 56buffalo. Its bright eye <em>Aldebaran</em> now lies in its neck.</li> 57 58<li>The head of <em>Hercules</em> is usually next to the head of 59<em>Ophiuchus</em>, the serpent holder, and the four stars known as 60"keystone" form his body. Rey makes his head out of the keystone, and 61the star that usually marks the hero's head is now one of his feet.</li> 62 63<li>The Whale (<em>Cetus</em>) has been turned around, its former 64mouth now forming a tail fin. </li> 65 66<li><em>Pegasus</em> exchanged feet and head.</li> 67 68<li><em>Bootes</em>, the herdsman, is shown sitting and smoking a pipe 69(no trace of political correctness in a children's book of the 701950s... :-) </li> </ul> </p> 71 72 73<h3>External links</h3> 74<ul> 75<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._A._Rey">H.A.Rey (Wikipedia)</a></li> 76</ul> 77 78<h3>Authors</h3> 79 80<p>This sky culture used to be for a long time an easy 81user-installable addon example contributed by Mike Richards. It has 82been reworked following the 41st reprint and completed with this 83description by Georg Zotti.</p> 84
