孔 至聖 星座 ©
The Heaven now before us is only this bright shining spot; but when viewed in its inexhaustible extent, the sun, moon, stars, and constellations of the zodiac, are suspended in it, and all things are overspread by it.
Confucius, The Golden Mean, 中 庸
Chapter 26, Verse 9
孔 至聖 星座© is unique as a constellation in several ways. First, it combines a seven and eight star cross-border asterism* into a single harmonized, eight star pattern of a new constellation. Second, it is viewed simultaneously from two different perspectives. Third, it is a joint creation of a Canadian poet in China and an American astronavigator in the United States who live spatially far apart. Fourth, it honours Master Kong whose core philosophy epitomizes peaceful harmony. Fifth, 孔 至聖 星座 © includes our sun. Finally, this unique constellation integrally relates heaven, earth and man through poetry, philosophy and the sciences.
The idea of harmony is central to Confucian philosophy. Harmony is more important than anything else. For example, it is more important to establish harmony than agreement.
Harmony is the cultivation of the true self as a moral being. It begins in one's peaceful relationship to family members. If there is harmony in the family then everything goes well. Harmony is then carried out into society. Kong Zi says "Let the states of equilibrium and harmony exist in perfection, and a happy order will prevail throughout heaven and earth, and all things will be nourished and flourish". 中 庸, Chapter 1, Verse 5
The constellation called 孔 至聖 星座 © is composed of four stars from Aquila; namely, 50 Aql, 53 Aql, 17 Aql and 13 Aql. Our sun is the fourth star. The constellation is completed with three stars from Hercules that are 111 Her, 110 Her and 113 Her.
孔 至聖 星座 © is a harmonization of two different viewpoints. It envisages how we perceive the stars from the planet earth and how we would perceive our own sun if we were on a planet near the star Sirius. Finally, both perspectives are balanced to create a third viewpoint or how we would perceive both simultaneously.
First, there is the viewpoint from the planet Earth. When we look up at the stars, we see a female Right Whale or Eubalaena Australis pattern. This baleen whale has no dorsal fin. We cannot usually see our own sun when we view the stars because the sun shines during the daytime. The seven star pattern viewed is called the Right Whale Asterism©.
Second, there is the viewpoint from a planet close to Sirius. If we can imagine that we are standing on a planet near Sirius and looking back at Earth then a particular pattern is recognized. It is a male Orca Whale or Orcinus. Orcinus chases the Constellation Delphinus or The Dolphin. Orcinus has a prominent dorsal fin because now we can see our sun. The sun is in the position of the dorsal fin. It is an eight star pattern that may be called the Orca Asterism©. Finally, there is an harmonized viewpoint. We imagine that we are standing at the same time both on the Earth and a planet near Sirius. We now see both a Right Whale and an Orca Whale. The Orca Whale is swimming peacefully above the Right Whale. The Orca's dorsal fin is now joined with the Right Whale. It is an eight star pattern.
孔 至聖 星座 ©
© D. Carlton Rossi, Rob Bradford 2005, 2006
KGSC ©
© D. Carlton Rossi, Rob Bradford 2006
Variants
孔 至聖 星云 © Kong Greatest Sage Star Cloud ©
孔 至聖 星群 © Kong Greatest Sage Asterism ©
孔夫子 至聖 星座 © Confucius Greatest Sage Constellation ©
孔夫子 至聖 星云 © Confucius Greatest Sage Star Cloud ©
孔夫子 至聖 星群 © Confucius Greatest Sage Asterism ©
孔子 至聖 星座 © Master Kong Constellation ©
孔子 至聖 星云 © Master Kong Star Cloud ©
孔子 至聖 星群 © Master Kong Asterism ©
孔 圣 人 星座 © Confuciusage Constellation ©
孔 圣 人 星云 © Confuciusage Star Cloud ©
孔 圣 人 星群 © Confuciusage Asterism ©
*The Chinese word (子)，the ancestral name of
Confucius should not be confused with the word
“master” as used in the style of Confucius “Master
Kong”(孔子)。
Confucius
http:www.answers.com/topic/confucius
All names of the eight stars, the harmonized pattern that may be viewed and the name 孔 至聖 星座 © is copyrighted.
Permission must be sought in order to duplicate, copy or reproduce them.
All rights reserved.
© 2006 D. Carlton Rossi, Rob Bradford 2005, 2006
All variants of the names 孔 至聖 星座 ©, their individual eight stars and their patterns are also copyrighted.
Permission must be sought in order to duplicate, copy or reproduce them.
All rights reserved.
© 2006 D. Carlton Rossi, Rob Bradford 2005, 2006
Right Whale Asterism©
Orca Asterism©
All stars of the seven star pattern called Right Whale Asterism© and the eight star pattern called Orca Asterism©, the patterns of Right Whale Asterism© and Orca Asterism© and the variants of Right Whale Asterism© and Orca Asterism© are copyrighted; as well as the names Right Whale Asterism © and Orca Asterism © are copyrighted.
Permission must be sought to duplicate, copy or reproduce them.
All rights reserved.
© 2006 D. Carlton Rossi, Rob Bradford 2005, 2006
LIST OF STARS
=============
(from fluke to head)
1. 50 Aql, Tarazed
2. 53 Aql, Altair
3. 17 Aql, Deneb el Okab, Deneb Australis
4. 13 Aql, Deneb el Okab, Deneb Borealis
5. Sol (our sun)
6. 111 Her
7. 110 Her
8. 113 Her
List of Stars, names of individual stars and the pattern of stars is copyrighted.
Permission must be sought in order to duplicate, copy or reproduce them.
All rights reserved.
© D. Carlton Rossi, Rob Bradford 2005, 2006.
Description of Stars
1. Tarazed
Common Name: Tarazed, Tarazet, Reda
Constellation Designation (Flamsteed): 50 Aql
Henry Draper Catalogue #186791
Hipparcos Catalogue #97278
Bayer: Gamma γ
Colour: bright orange to reddish
Tarazed Details
Description of Tarazed
2.Altair
Common Name: Altair
Constellation Designation (Flamsteed): 53 Aql
Henery Draper Catalogue #187642
Hipparcos Catalogue #97649
Bayer: Alpha α
Colour: yellowish white to white
Altair Details
Description of Altair
3. Deneb el Okab, Deneb Australis
Common Name: Deneb el Okab
Constellation Designation (Flamsteed): 17 Aql
Henry Draper Catalogue #177724
Hipparcos Catalogue #93747
Bayer: Zeta ζ
Colour: white
Mandarin name: Woo and Yu are derived from an old state near Jiangsu province and from an old state in Guandong province.
17 Aql Details
Description Deneb Zeta
Aquila the Eagle
Deneb Australis
4. Deneb el Okab, Deneb Borealis
Common Name: Deneb el Okab
Constellation Designation (Flamsteed): 13 Aql
Henry Draper Catalogue #176411
Hipparcos Catalogue #94244
Bayer: Epsilon ε
Mandarin name: shares the name of Zeta Aql
Colour: orange
13 Aquila Details
Description of Deneb Epsilon (Delta?)
Deneb Borealis
Descriptions of Stars in Aquila
5. Sol (Our Sun)
Distance from earth = 8.31 minutes at speed of light
Absolute magnitude = 4.8m
Visual brightness = -26.8m
Roman name: Sol
Greek name: Helios
"How far away could we detect a star like the Sun with the Hubble Space Telescope?
With HST, it is possible to see Cepheids in the galaxy M100 which have apparent magnitudes of +26. Let us adopt this as the limit of apparent brightness that HST can "see". Therefore, our problem reduces to: at what distance would the Sun have an apparent magnitude of +26? The answer is 176,198 parsecs."
From the star Sirius, our sun would appear with the naked eye as a bright star. It would be the brightest star of 孔 至聖 星座 ©.
Our Sun from Afar
6. 111 Her
Constellation Designation (Flamsteed): 111 Her
HR #7069
HD 173880
SAO #104093
Colour: white
111 Her Details
7. 110 Her
Constellation Designation (Flamsteed) : 110 Her
HR #7061
HD #173667
SAO # 86406
Colour: white
Her 110 Details
8. 113 Her
Constellation Designation (Flamsteed): 113 Her
HR # 7133 (note: not 7113)
HD #175492
SAO # 86567
Colour: yellow
113 Her Details
Descriptions of Stars in Hercules
List of Stars, names of individual stars and the pattern of stars of 孔 至聖 星座 © is copyrighted.
Permission must be sought in order to duplicate, copy or reproduce them.
All rights reserved.
© D. Carlton Rossi, Rob Bradford 2005, 2006.
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it. (Confucius, Analects)
"In about 12,000 years, the brightest star of the Constellation Lyre will become the North Star. A slight wobble in Earth's daily rotation causes our north pole to trace a circle among the stars every 26,000 years. This motion is called precession and it causes the pole to point at different stars over this 26,000 year period."
Starry Skies, Constellation Lyre
http://starryskies.com/articles/2004/07/lyra.html
The parallelogram shaped Lyre may be seen in the map of the early autumn skies where it is positioned at a higher latitude, but between a line running through the Constellation Hercules and Aquila.
The Constellation Lyre
North Circumpolar Stars which include Hercules and Lyre
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*An asterism is a cluster of stars or a small constellation. A cross-border asterism is formed from the stars of more than one constellation. For example, The Lozenge is a small diamond formed from three stars (Eltanin, Grumium, and Rastaban) in the head of Draco and one star (Iota Herculis) found in the foot of Hercules.
Cross-border Asterism
孔至聖星座 ©
孔 至聖 星座 ©
D. Carlton Rossi, Rob Bradford, 2005, 2006
For legal purposes, the English version takes precedence over the translated Chinese version.
Encoding is Chinese simplified GB2312.
Image Pattern may be viewed with Starry Night 5 or Celestica programs.
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