THE CONSTELLATIONS CAN BE DIVIDED into the following categories:

FOR THE SIZE CONSCIOUS, these are the largest (1 Hya, 2 Vir, 3 UMa, 4 Cet, 5 Her) and these the smallest (1 Cru, 2 Equ, 3 Sag, 4 Cir).

CONSTELLATION LOCATIONS: The water constellations are plotted together, and Mensa (Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa) is at the side of the water. While Hercules and Pegasus are plotted upside-down, Taurus, Centaurus, Cetus, and again Hercules, are also plotted backwards.

CONSTELLATION CONTENTS: Constellations with the most Bennett objects are Sgr (22), Oph (14) and Dor (11); the most Messier objects are in Sgr (15), Vir (11) and Com/Oph (7 each).

ORIGINS OF CONSTELLATIONS: The responsible folk are Ptolemy (150 AD - 47 groups); Mercator, Keyser, De Houtman, Plancius (1600 - 14 southern, 3 obscure northern); Hevelius (1690 - 7 obscure northern) and Lacaille (1754 - 13 obscure southern, 4 parts of Argo). The origin of the names have influences from Sumeria, Babylon, Greek (Ptolemy), Arabic (Al Sufi) and Medieval (Latin).

OBSELETE CONSTELLATIONS These fascinating artifacts of sky lore give an obscure insight into the life and thinking of astronomers past.

Drennan, A. (1983) "What Ever Happened to Bufo the Toad?" Sky & Telescope, April, 316. [Overview of the odd starpatterns proposed by John Hill, an 18th century medical doctor]

Sperling, N. (1981) "The Mystery of Urania's Mirror" Sky & Telescope, May, 398. [Colour reproduction of 20 of the 32 'star cards'; discussion of the obsolete constellations introduced.]