The Man and the Stars.

As Homo sapiens began to open his mind, curiosity and anxiety for knowledge also awoke. He tried to explain everything around. And slowly, Mother Nature began to show her secrets… That way, man was discovering some sequences and natural cycles, while he managed to get used. But, could all that knowledge be useful in his everyday life?

The Universe, by C. Flammarion. From The Atmosphere, Popular Metheorology.  Color by Hugo Heikenwaelder, Vienna. 1998. Lic. CC BY-SA 2.5

For sure, one of first of those cycles our ancestors did notice, was the day and night. To them, were light times followed by darkness, on and on. They saw the bright Sun rising, and soaring through the skies, to went down later and finally hide towards the same place everyday. Then, worrying shadows covered everything! People hopefully waited for its new appearance at the opposite horizon. With the new light, life seemed to start again. Was obvious that most of living activity slowed down during its absence.

Full Moon Night. Photo: Luz A. Villa. Medellín, Colombia, 2007. Lic. CC Attribution 2.0 Generic

But at dusk, the firmament often became a marvelous scenery. The primitive men should have been charmed, staring at that unending beauty. Countless points of light and also the Moon, with her cold mantle, appeared before his eyes. She seemed to be the same size of the sun, although her shape changed every time. How could those dark nights have looked like, without the slightest trace of artificial light? It was something that not only invited to stare at, surely it was a permanent stimulus for curiosity and thinking…

One Tree Hill. Photo: Christopher Michel, 2014. Lic. CC Attribution 2.0 Gen.

Humans always tried to understand the things that happened up in the sky. At first, based on the things they looked at, it was easy to imagine the Earth placed in the center of a very huge dome. The rest of the celestial objects should be moving around it. For thousands of years, the scholars were wrong about all that, including our place in the universe. The Sun was the first of those objects whose behavior was studied. But the night skies would be at the end, which permitted a better knowledge from the sky behavior… and its relation with the cycles of Nature. Curiously, all that progress was based on a wrong hypothesis.

The Eagle, the Lyre ande Cynus in the summer skies. Showing the Northern Triangle, formed by Altair, Vega and Deneb. Photo: Martin Mark, 2015. Lic. CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.

Human imagination also played an important role, as they began to associate some groups of stars, with well known shapes. A ferocious lion, a magnificent eagle or a scorpion, for instance. But the most important was that those shapes never changed. Hence, a certain list of celestial figures passed from one generation to the next. Many centuries later, the Greeks named those groups of stars as constellations. Still in the present, several of them are familiar to us. Maybe it started as a game, but was crucial for a better understanding of the universe. From that time, every discovery opened the doors to new finds.

Sunset on Equinox day, at Pizzo Vento, Fondacelli Fantina, Sicily, Italy. Photo:Girtompi. Lic.CC0

A tree, a big rock, a mountain, were the first reference points for the early astronomers. Later, they began to erect their own observatories, by lining up big stones… or constructing high buildings. It was due to a permanent watching of the sky, that they finally found some relationship between that, and natural phenomena. Hot or cold weather; the rain or dry seasons; even the river floods and tides could be anticipated. When to collect their crops and when they could expect abundance! The right time to sow and harvesting: it all seemed to be written in the firmament.

Moon rising, at Punta Mola, México. Photo: Dario Giannobile, 2014. Lic. CC Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 International.

It was not very difficult to realize that the Moon and other celestial objects, ran faster than the stars. These, looked like a part of a backdrop, which moved in an almost subtle manner. If a curious person saw the Moon near some group of stars one night, would see it more and more distant from them, every night. They noticed that apparently our satellite “walked” over the stars. And moreover, she always seemed to go through the same groups (or constellations).

The Moon phases. 1. New. 2-4. Crescent. 5. Full. 6-8. Waning.

Besides, they perceived that the changes in shape of the Moon, or phases, repeated periodically. This permitted a great progress in the measurement of time. They verified that between two consecutive New Moons (when it is nearest to the Sun at the sunset), always passed a little more than twenty nine days. So the man began to count the time in “moons”. As it can be seen, was nearly equivalent to the months from our calendars. It was how the lunar calendars were born. They are still used in some countries.

Sumerian star finder. 3rd millenium bC.

About five thousand years ago, the Sumerian astronomers determined which groups of stars did the Moon go through, along her cycle. It was like drawing our natural satellite’s orbit, over a map of stars. They could recognize twenty eight different groups, one for every night. After that, the Moon was again at the starting point. So they only needed to check its position, to know the day of that cycle.

But even then, it was not enough to comprehend and to predict the rhythm of nature. Something else was still missing! The ancient astronomers noticed that the Lunar calendar could not predict the seasons changes. They knew that some nature cycles repeated approximately every twelve “moons”. Yet, as time passed, they observed increasing discrepancies between the calendar date and the weather expected. The answer to that, would be found when they better understood the behavior of the Sun.

The Moon phases, by Galileo, 1616. {{PD-US}}

It became obvious that a Moon’s Year, with three hundred and fifty four days, was too short… so they solved the growing mismatch, by adding one month to the year, every so often. We also add one day to the year, every four years, to fix the slight flaw of our calendar! By doing that, they maintained an acceptable agreement with the beginning date of each season. Some calendars, such as the Babylonian and the Greek, were made that way. The Jewish religious calendar still uses this method.
At first, the sky scholars had not paid much attention to the path of the Sun, for a simple reason: the stars could not be seen at day. But they surely knew that it had a similar route as the Moon. On those times, the astronomers already counted on a sort of “sky map” and they were able to draw its way among well known groups of stars.

To know the position of the Sun, they only needed to check which constellations appeared just before daybreak and which hid after it, at dusk. This way, they confirmed that the trajectory of the Sun was also cyclical. But it seemed to be slower than the Moon. Our star needed a little more than three hundred and sixty five days to complete every cycle, instead of the twenty nine and a half the moon took. That trajectory received the name of Ecliptic.

The Ecliptic and the Zodiacal constellations. From a work by Joshua Cesa, at  http://commons.wikimedia.org by Macalves, 2012. Lic. CC Att-Share Alike 3.0

Enopides, a Greek astronomer, configured the constellations of the Ecliptic, by the year 450 bC. They resulted to be twelve, and the Sun took approximately thirty days to cross each one of them. They are our familiar Zodiac constellations. The ancient men had also seen another five bright bodies which traveled along those stars. They were called as planets, which means “wanderers”... due to their irregular movements.

Vernal Equinox. First Point of Aries. By Francisco J. González Pontevedra, Spain. Made with Inkscape. Lic. CC BY 2.5

But the most interesting advance, was to discover that the time the Sun took for every cycle, fitted perfectly well with the seasonal changes. We should not forget that the Sun movement was apparent, but that wrong model worked fine! Ever since, when the Sun passed over the first point of Aries, was considered as the Spring beginning. It was a happy event, waited and joyfully celebrated by all the ancient civilizations. The solar cycle also permitted to anticipate the propitious rain and even the fertilizing floods from some rivers. Hence, it seemed logical that a Sun calendar, should be more useful than the old Lunar calendar.

But many people still refused to adopt the new one, so they continued using the Moon calendar for many centuries. Maybe it was due to the conservative and traditionalist nature always present inside human spirit. Even so, in the Ancient Egypt they used a calendar based on the Sun, since the third millennium before Christ! It would be much later, when Julius Caesar imposed a reform in Rome, based on the Egyptian’s, by the year 46 bC. That way, they adopted the Julian Solar calendar, which would last for a long time.

Claudius Ptolemy. From a publication of 1584.  By Maranchin & Chaudiere, Paris. Source: Popular Science Monthly, April, 1911.

The astronomers continued exploring the firmament, beyond the zodiacal constellations. Since the old times, they knew other sparkling stars such as Sirius, Altair, Vega, Polaris and most of them were out of the zodiac. By the year 275 bC. Aratus, described and named several non zodiacal groups of stars. Later, Claudius Ptolemy, improved and increased the list, in 135 AD. He identified forty eight constellations! Those treatises, logically only contained visible stars, from any figure they considered. But with the telescope invention, the man could see how many of them had been neglected in the ancient descriptions, for their low brightness.

Ferdinand Magellan crosses the strait. Unknown author, 1860. Source: Laurence Bergreen. Beyond the Edge of the World, 2005. {{PD-US}}

During the 15th and 16th centuries travels, the sea men noticed that as they sailed more to the south, the Polar Star went lower over the horizon. At some latitude it disappeared, producing them a reverential fear. But they later understood that it was only a prove of the Earth sphericity. They had only crossed the imaginary line which parts the planet in two halves: the Ecuator. This, was something well known by the ancient Greeks! One thing was certain: going south, those sailors were watching stars never seen by the Old World astronomers.

Sky map, showing the 88 constellations. Photo: Shadowxfox, 2008. Lic. CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic

Now, the sky has been divided into eighty eight constellations. Any star detected at the present, belongs to one of those groups. In other words, they cover all the firmament. Constellations may vary in their shapes and sizes. Several have kept the name they had in the ancient times, most of them are objects, animals or mythical characters names.

The Gods council, in heaven. By Giovanni Lanfranco, ca. 1624. Borghese Galery, Rome. Photo: Livioandronico2013, 2015. Lic. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.

Along with the advances in astronomy, men always respected the power and mystery of nature. They feared the unknown. To them, it all seemed to be the acts of some capricious deities, who lived in celestial palaces. Most religions considered the Sun, the Moon, the bright planets and stars… even some constellations, as divine entities. To get their favors, men had to make offerings, whose smoke should ascent to the gods in heaven.

Deep in our subconscious mind, for sure we still have traces of those ancestral beliefs. As an example: is very common to see how many people, as a signal of gratitude, look up to the skies and say some words. Who has not seen that, many times? Maybe we also do the same, and we don’t realize…

From: Planting, harvesting and... by Seward, Alfred F.& Co.1920. Photo: Internet Archive Book Images. Source: https://www.flickr.com 2014.

Likewise, a widespread belief in horoscopes and astrologists still remains. They think that the planetary positions have a great influence on our lives. But how can the transit of a reddish planet bring war? Also, a bright planet whose surface is worst than hell, may rule love and beauty in our lives? Can it be possible that a twins’ constellation marks the nature of a person? It is no more than a reminiscence from those times, when the sacerdotal power tried to eclipse the growing knowledge of men. We should only remember those astronomers, forced to retract from their opinion and theories. They had to struggle against the inquisitorial pressure! It seems likely, that the priests casts always used the collective superstition, for their own benefit. And they were successful…

The Pleiades, open stelar cluster. Distant aproximately 400 light years from Earth. Photo: NASA. Palomar Observatory, Cal. USA. Source: http://hubblesite.org

To what extent, all the religions through history, may just be the inheritance of human experience? Something like a spiritual and cognitive legacy from our ancestors. For sure, it is a question very hard to answer. Perhaps the answer to our questions was all the time in the stars. But it could well be inside every one of us...