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URANOS : STARS,
CONSTELLATIONS AND SKY
LORE
all publics – educators &
pedagogues – researchers & passionate amateurs
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Updating
on
11/06/2017
Last
publications in english
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Observations & commentaries
to Ahmed Jallad on his work on Safaitic Zodiac,
par Roland Laffitte, 10/10/2015.
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The Southern Sky, from
the Arabs to the Portuguese, near 1500
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Roland Laffitte, Symposium 2014,
Verkehrhaus Luzern / Lucerne / Lucerna, 1-5 Mai / May /maggio 2014.
(in French, German, English & Italian) |
Celestial Imaginary, as a tool for astronomical
knwledge,
article
issued in Planétariums, revue de l’APLF
(Association des Planétariums de Langue Française), 2014, p. 75.
(a more complete text is available in France) |
Formation of our celestial vault : uranography,
individual stars, constellations, planets, etc.
Celestial sphere is constituted of
several strata:
* Mesopotamia
gave us: premisses of the spheric form with its parts
and its metrology, the half of Greek classical 44 constellations,
planet names taken up by Greeks, directly or via peoples of
Syria or these of Aramaic Language.
* Hellenic and Latin civilisation
bequeathed to us: the developped conception of celestial sphere,
the formalisation into constellations with their mythology and some
stars and plantes names.
* Arab civilisation
brought us the two thirds of star names which conceal unknown figures
and mythology.
* Modern Europe
acheaved the division of the sphere in
constellations which number was fixed to 88 par IAU (International
Astronomical Union) in 1922-1930.
* The others
civilisations and cultures regularly supply us nowadays with new
time-honoured star names.
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Babylon, Mesopotamia |
Ancient Near East |
Ancient Egypt |
Hellenic & Latin civilisation
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Arab Civilisation &
Medieval Orient |
Modern Europe
& contemporary World astronomy |
Others contributions
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Back to Summary
Sky
representations and star lore in the different cultures
Back to Summary
Thematic presentations
Back to Summary
Project :
« The Sky, our Common Heritage »
Out of the 88
constellations used by the International Union of Astronomy (IUA), 48 were
already in existence in Ancient Greece, which itself inherited half of them
from Babylon, in particular the twelve constel-lations of the zodiac. As for
the stars, two-thirds are commonly known by Arabic names, the most famous
being Aldebaran, Altair, Betelgueuse, Rigel and
Vega.
The
project in a nutshell
The idea is to create, for
educational purposes, a comparative representation of the heavens in
Mesopotamian, Greek, Arab and contemporary cultures. This would be
made available to planetariums in countries all around the
Mediterranean, and then adapted to other vehicles of communication:
globes, planispheres, DVDs, websites, etc.
The
Selefa invites from now
on all those wishing the success of this projet to patronate it or
contribute to its study and set it up, and calls the institutions,
associations and foundations ready to take up the challenge to build
a partneship for its achievement.
.
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Acces to the Project (PdF) |
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