Stars in Libra and Centaurus from Mt Lofty (Bruce Rohrlach)

Contains: Extremely wide field

Stars in Libra and Centaurus from Mt Lofty

Stars in Libra and Centaurus from Mt Lofty ... and my first (cognizant) siting of Mercury at Mt Lofty, while overlooking Adelaide and Gulf St Vincent.

The labelled stars Zubenelgenubi, Zubene, Zuben Elakrab and Brachium (centre right) are four of eight of the prominent stars of the constellation Libra - known in Babylonian astronomy as MUL Zibanu, the scales/balance. The scales were held sacred to the sun god Shamash, patron of truth and justice. It has also been suggested that the scales are an allusion to the fact that when the sun entered this part of the ecliptic at the autumnal equinox, the days and nights are equal.

The constellation Libra was also seen as part of the Scorpius constellation (as the Scorpion's Claws) in ancient Greece. In Arabic Zubānā means ‘scorpion's claws’. The cool red supergiant Antares (the heart of the Scorpion) lies above Jupiter beyond this image.

The labelled stars Menkent and Alnair on the left are 2 of 14 stars of Centaurus. Menket in Arabic means ‘shoulder’ (of the centaur) and Alnair is derived from the Arabic ‘Al-Na’ir al-batn’ meaning ‘the bright one of the stomach’ (of the Centaur). A common theory holds that the idea of centaurs came from the first reaction of a non-riding culture (as in the Minoan Aegean world) to nomads who were mounted on horses. Such riders would appear as half-man, half-animal.

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Stars in Libra and Centaurus from Mt Lofty

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