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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Constellation names
From: Jan Kalivoda
Date: 2003 Nov 2, 18:24 +0100
From: Jan Kalivoda
Date: 2003 Nov 2, 18:24 +0100
As for Central Europe, the Latin names of constellations are used only in professional sky atlases. Manuals for amateurs use their translation into vernacular, even in the case of the hapless southern Painter. In the official manual of navigation for the German Kriegsmarine from 1942 (VERY good in all aspects for that time), only German names of constellations are used. And as for British use of Plough / Dipper, I vaguely remember that the Dipper was used in books of Arthur Ransome from cca 1930. Maybe Dipper has legal residence in Britain, too? Jan Kalivoda
