Two weeks ago I shared a map of all the stars you can see from Earth, alongside the Western constellations. But the Western constellations are only one of many patterns of stars invented by cultures around the world. This week’s map illustrates the animals, people, and objects imagined in the sky by more than 30 different civilizations.

To make this map I used data from Stellarium, an open-source planetarium software that includes constellations from ancient Dakota, Hawaiian, and Mongolian cultures, among many others. Some of my favorite constellations were the Stars of Water, Rabbit Tracks, and the Hippopotamus, and I also really liked the star names The Oath Star, Lady of Life, and The Hand of the Mouse.

1/2 mile wide web page.

The Bad Astronomy web pages are devoted to airing out myths and misconceptions in astronomy and related topics. At the moment, I have no desire to tackle here such thorny topics as astrology, alternate views of the universe that are clearly in contradicti

These images came to me via a string of friends-of-friends-of-friends: shots of a Space Shuttle launch as seen from the International Space Station.

"...the planet's best online space history resource..."

Cool open source planitarium program