Earlier this month, scientists in Japan said they discovered a molecular cloud shaped like a pigtail.
China’s constellations reflect their daily lives, with butchers, carts and wells
Most will never get to see much of the cloud, which is 30,000 light years away and was discovered using a multimillion euro telescope.
But a leading space psychiatrist with a passion for celestial maps believes there has never been a better time to pick up a telescope and become an amateur astronomer.
“Amateurs may not have telescopes large enough to see deep, deep space, but there’s still a lot to discover and many come across comets or supernovas. Professionals can only scan so much of the sky on their own,” Nick Kanas explained.
Currently visiting Malta, Prof. Kanas, a psychiatrist by profession, last night gave a public lecture on the history of celestial cartography at the Phoenicia Hotel in Floriana.
Renowned for his Nasa-sponsored research into astronauts’ psychiatry, his first love has always been the night sky.
“I was about 12 when the Sputnik went up, and I remember some-one outside had a telescope. I looked through it and saw Saturn. I was hooked.”
An acclaimed psychiatric career kept Prof. Kanas busy, although not busy enough to leave amateur astronomy behind. And the field has a long tradition of enthusiast contribution, he said.
“Professional astronomers didn’t really start until official observatories were set up in Paris and London in the 1700s. Until then, astronomers were all amateurs.”
Most were doctors and clerics, “although (16th century German astronomer) Johannes Hevelius was a brewer”, he noted.
Meticulously drawn and intricately detailed, the maps these men drafted are works of art unto themselves. The oldest preserved sky map dates back to AD 200 and can be found in the Farnese Atlas. It is believed to be a copy of a 200 BC Greek original.
But while ancient sky maps are nowadays beautiful relics with a window into past civilisations, they used to play myriad societal roles.
“The sky is a big clock,” Prof. Kanas began. “And through it, we learn about the seasons. So the first appearance of Sirius, just before the sun, would tell the Egyptians to get planting their crops, as it meant that the Nile would soon flood.”
Stars and their maps were also vital tools for any navigator worth his salt. And superstition played a part too, Prof. Kanas explained.
“Emperors and kings often had their own representation marked in the stars, and it was considered a bad omen if a comet or supernova appeared next to that.” According to Prof. Kanas, while constellations such as the Big Dipper are universal, others are entirely subjective.
“We in the west follow the Greek system, which has spread widely. But China, for example, has its own system. And their constellations reflect their daily lives, with butchers, carts, wells, their Emperor and so on. We don’t have those constellations, because we don’t see the sky in that way.”
Some astronomers took this subjectivity to entirely different levels and Prof. Kanas had an amusing anecdote. “Bode, who was the Berlin Observatory’s chief astronomer, had 100 constellations in his sky. And a lot of them were dedicated to the Emperor, who funded his observatory. He just made them up.”
Modern-day astronomers can come up with as many constellations as they like, but they are unlikely to be taken as seriously as Bode was. “In 1922 the international association of astronomers made an official list of 88 constellations, and that’s what we have today,” he said.
But nothing quite beat the feeling of being enveloped by the night sky. “Night pollution has become a big, big problem for astronomers, which means you often have to head a fair distance from metropolitan areas to get a clear view. But when you do – oh my, it’s spectacular. Nothing beats it”.