Real images in the constellations in the past

Unbelievable real images behind the constellations. Clear image revealed in the sky of how the lion constellation really looked like earlier.

The lion images are at the end of this article.

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House during the time the sky disk was used for religion. Image by Lola131313

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Nebara sky disk, 4000 years old showing the Pleiades star cluster. The star circle in the middle. Image D. Bachman.

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Leo the lion constellation in the sky. Image by Torsten Bronger and KXX.

Are the constellations in the sky real images? Constellations, the animal forms and the like that are seen in the stars in the sky are not only for future predictions for magazines. Today scientists use the old constellations like Taurus, the bull or Leo, the lion to describe what area of the sky they are talking about. Like for example somebody says: I am studying a star in Taurus right now.  And before the modern age with its monoteistic religion the animals seen in the stars in the sky where seen as religious things. There are images in the cave paintings of Lascaux that seem very much to be depictions of zodiacal signs that are estimated to be at least 15.000 years old. So humanity did watch the mighty sky and the stars since a long time ago. And human cultures noticed that the stars and the skies seemed to “magically” run along with the seasons. The constellations always are in the sky in the same month each year and then disappear behind the horizon again. And the seasons where always important in past times for determining the right time for farming activities. So most probably the older people, cultures and civilisatons connected the stars and the figures to godly power as well as they connected to godly power the sprouting of the seeds, which they where dependent on. And this probably made them do religious activities connected to the signs of the zodiac in the sky. The Nebra sky disk is a disc made of bronze with a diameter of 30 centimeters. It weights 2.2 kg. It is between 3700–4100 years old and from where today is Germany. It now has a green patina but it is bronze with golden star, moon and sun inlays. The stars look completely like a star form that you see in the sky at night. And it is thought that some ancient culture used this disk with the stars on it for some religious purpose. So the signs of the zodiac in the sky are not only mystical nonsense. They are a piece of early human religion and culture. The first writing we have that names the constellations in the sky are about 3000 years old, but as we have seen watching and naming the stars and the constellation images in the sky was already done ages before. From the time and age people first wrote books about and drew images of the constellations the constellations have been preserved in old books from the greeks and then the romans and today in Europe and America we have the ancient names of the constellations in their latest roman form. The Chineese have different constellations of animals and images in the sky but it seems that they are connected to european constellations through a long tradition of naming constellations and finding images in the sky in historical human civilisations. So humans always or at least for a very long time saw images of animals in the stars in the sky and they somehow cherished them culturally. And today when you like look up the constellation Leo, the lion you get this image what you already saw above. This is how the constellation of Leo, the lion is usually given today in images. Just a few lines.

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This is the constellation Leo in the sky as it is depicted today. Image by Torsten Bronger and KXX

 

 

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Somebody trying to make the star signs more intuitive and so more easy to find drew this different connection of the stars in the leo constellation. But still of course we search for a better lion in the Leo constellation. image credit AugPi Idea: H.A. Rey.

There is a better lion seen here, but still it is a stick figure. But where the stone age and bronze age people or cultures like that. did they look at the sky and saw a figure of a few lines in the sky like in the image and called it the lion. Probably not I think. We imagine that people look up and see something that looks stunningly like a lion and then say that they see a lion image above in the sky. And it should be something that one person tells another that it thinks that some star constellation looks like a lion and the other person has to confirm that. In the image to the right somebody modelled a different lion image in the Leo constellation out of the surrounding stars. Even though this is much better and really reminds of a lion still to me it did not seem to be enough. I always was convinced that the old people and cultures did not make up a stick figure of a lion. I was convinced that past civilisations of earlier times saw real realistic images in the constellatons of the stars. So I was always thinking where are the real images. Where is this thing that looks like a lion. And the answer I came up with for myself was that light pollution could be the reason so that ancient civilisations might have seen stars in the sky that are not to be seen anymore which completed the real images of the constellations in the past time. Light pollution is the effect that because we make cities with electric light the sky is lit more and more and therefore we see less stars today. So the older cultures saw more stars. And I was always wondering if this goes so far that they also saw cosmic nebulea in the past that make much of the form of the images of the constellations in the sky. So for years I was wondering about how ancient civilisations saw the stars and if they somehow could see images that are now not more to be seen because they are to faint. And now finally I took an internet site that shows a good starmap (click set for nearby city first). And special about this starmap of the skies is that it is generated from a library of star positions. And so I could tell that starmap to light up for me stars that we usually do not see so much anymore today. So I am seeing the stars that people might have seen thousands of years ago. And if there would be a real image of a constellation I should see it. And so I let the map give my a close shot of the stars around the constellation leo, the lion, but with many stars, more then you usually see when you watch the sky. And I was looking for a real image of a lion that might to be seen there. And then I saw something reminding of a lions head enough to make people recognize it. And I searched on for features in the leg area of the lion constellation that might resemble typical leg features of a lion. And I took out a graphic program and drew lines between the stars to construct the image that one could see if he or she tries to see a lion in this star constellation. And this is what I constructed always thinking what could look like a lion.

 

 

 Realistic clearer lion image

 

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The dots are the stars given out by a computer generated Star map. I drew in the lines. Below you see the modern stick-constellation drawn into this. I was so stunned when I had the final image. This was the lion I had been searching for for so long. Of course not everybody will have seen the lion in the same way because there are only stars and you have to actively see the lion in it. But this image gives a chance to see that typical lion forms really can be seen in the stars of this constellation. Today the many stars around the lion are not to be seen in this way. So what you see today if you watch the constellation Leo is something like the stick figure from the beginning of this article and you do not see this real image. I used a computer simulation to see the sky with more stars that are selden or never visible in the sky. But this now looks like a lion. Finally this is a real image that makes it plausible to speak of a lion image in this star constellation. So I think this is highly probably the constellation image the lion actually looked like in the past. Thousand years ago, 2000 years ago or much longer ago. In this way I think we have to imagine the images of the constellations in the past before light pollution made the real images of the zodiacal signs vanish. This very much seems to me to be be what the real images in the constellations looked like in the past time and for ancient civilisations and cultures. This to me is an actual image. This should be about the historical look of the real images in the sky I think.

But how much do the constellations change over time. Didn’t people of the past saw another sky. It is true stars are moving relatively to each other so constellations of stars change over time but they change very slowly. The stars in the image are at their modern positions but we can say that 15.000 years ago the constellation Leo, lion should have looked more or less like this what we see in the image. If you go back in time 50.000 years then the constellations and with it the constellation lion looks different because the stars are at other positions but the last 15.000 years the lion looked something like this what we see in the image. Not all stars move at the same speed so I can not absolutly tell but lets say that it is save to say that 15.000 years ago we look more or less at the same constellation.

Now here is an image of just the stars from the computer generated star map without any lines. And then the complete image with the modern form of the constellation drawn into it.

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Now: is this scientific?

I emailed the departement of astronomy at Berkerley University in California. And I got an email back from a Dr.. I don’t know from whom but it I guess it was one of the professors for astronomy. He told me that he never searched for real images in the constellations but that he thinks what I found would be at least interesting to look at. And then went on and told me that in science a star up to the magnitude of 6 is regarded as “visible to the naked eye”. and everything less bright then 6 is reagarded invisible to the naked eye. (this “magnitude” is a scale to measure how bright a star is in the sky and the smaller the magnitude the brighter is the star). So I think the lion image above is great and it consists only of stars that are really there. But it has indeed some stars in it that are less bright then magnitue 6. So scientifically speaking some of the stars are never visible to the naked eye. I like the above image and I came to thinking maybe a nebula in the background of the star could brighten up the star in the sky. I mean a very light spot in the tissue of the nebulea that can be seen in the sky when you got really good view could form light spots that combinded with the star in the foreground make a star visible. But lets be scientific here and say in accordance to science that a star less bright then magnitude 6 is never visible to the naked eye.

So I worked over the image leaving only the stars that are of the magnitude 6 and brighter. and that looks like this:

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Still a pretty nice lion. And this is based on stars that are really there and confirmed by somebody from the astronomy department of Berkelay University California that at least these stars can be visible opposite to the first lion image above which also only uses stars that are there but uses some stars that scientifically are regarded as never visible. But the modified image right above only uses stars that can be visible. And it is still a pretty lion.

And now the whole thing without the lines.

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Please do not redraw these images and put them to wikipedia, rather link to my page. It took me years and many tries to discover this and I want it to pay out in hits. Thanks. I have linked to the starmap (set for nearby city) I used so that you can do what I did and search for the images of other constellations. Keep star-gazing.