Pink Floyd’ Astronomy Domine

 

Cover of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)

"Astronomy Domine" is a song by British psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd. It is written by Syd Barrett (the original vocalist/guitarist) and was the first track on their album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). The lead vocal was sung by Barrett and keyboard player Richard Wright.

The song opens with the voice of their manager at the time Peter Jenner, reading the names of stars through a megaphone. The intention of this opening is to replicate the feeling of outer space, with Jenner's voice sounding like an astronaut's over an intercom. Barrett's Fender Esquire then seemingly emerges from the distance and grows louder. At 0:19 a rapid beeping sound appears, again reaffirming the feeling of distant space. At 0:26, Mason's distinctive drum fills emerge, followed closely by Barrett's bluesy, sinister-sounding guitar (perhaps reminiscent of Duane Eddy) in a figure suggestive of the brass motif from "Mars, the Bringer of War" in Holst's The Planets. Wright's Farfisa organ is mixed into the background. Barrett's incantatory lyrics about space again support the cosmonautical theme in the song, mentioning planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune as well as Uranian moons Oberon, Miranda, and Titania, and Saturn's moon Titan. Barrett and Richard Wright provide lead vocals. Waters' repetitive bass line, Wright's Farfisa organ, and Barrett's kinetic slide guitar then dominate, followed by the voice of Peter Jenner again through a megaphone.

The song has an unusual chord progression: E, E-flat, G, A. The sound of this chord progression, in conjunction with the use of a Binson echo machine for the guitar, has a very distinctive psychedelic character. The track is the album's most "space rock" song, alongside the longer "Interstellar Overdrive". The style of the song and its use of sound effects would influence the future work of Pink Floyd, and its influence can be felt on Ummagumma (1969) and even The Dark Side of the Moon (1973).

 

 

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy_Domine

Planisphaerium Bianchini – The Greco-Egyptian Constellation

 

Planisphaerium/Tabula Bianchini or the Planisphere astrologique de style Egyptian (From Origine de tous les cultes, ou religion universelle, par Dupuis. (Paris E. Babeuf 1822) Dupuis (1742-1809), Author.)

 

This drawing is a graphical depiction of an astrological dicing board made of marble, which involved divination by throwing a dice on top of it. It is probably from the 3rd century AD. It was found on the Aventine Hill, Rome, and now was kept in Louvre, Paris.

The center of the system is drawn on the pole of the ecliptic (which is exactly alpha Draconis), and not on the pole of the equator (Ursa Major), because the Sun’ passage through the sky along the ecliptic is the relevant path for astrology. Because of this, three polar constellations are depicted in an interesting manner: Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, with Draco coiling between them.

The first band from the center depicts the animal of the Dodecahoros Chaldaike, a Chaldean zodiac. It was incomplete, but based on another finding from Egypt (see below), it can be listed that the constellations are: a sitting cat (Aries), a dog or a jackal (Taurus), a serpent (Gemini), a scarabeus or a crab (Cancer), a donkey (Leo), a walking lion (Virgo), a goat or gazelle (Libra), a bull (Scorpio), a falcon (Sagittarius), a baboon/ape (Capricorn), an ibis (Aquarius), and a crocodile (Pisces)

The complete marble slab of the Dodecahoros, sighted in Cairo antique shop in 1901.

 

The next two outer band depicts the standard Greek zodiac.

The last band shows the Egyptian decans, the Greco-Egyptian names of each one is inscribed below each figure. Just outside this band are depiction of faces of the 7 planetary gods that is associated with the decans. We can see that a woman holding a mirror is definitely Venus, and the one with a winged hair is Mercury. Based on this, I can - more or less - list the name of each decans and the associated god:

Aries Asiccan, Mars Senacher, Sun Acentacer, Venus	Taurus Asicath, Mercury Viroaso, Moon Aharph, Saturn	Gemini Thesogar, Jupiter Verasua, Mars Thepisatosoa, Sun
Cancer Sothis, Venus Sith, Mercury Thuimis, Moon	Leo Aphruimis, Saturn Sithacer, Jupiter Phuonisi, Mars	Virgo Thumis, Sun Thopithus, Venus Aphuth, Mercury
Libra Semeuth, Moon Aterechinis, Saturn Arpien, Jupiter	Scorpio Senthacer, Mars Thepiseuth, Sun Sencmer, Venus	Sagittarius Eregbuo, Mercury Sagen, Moon Chenen, Saturn
Capricorn Themeso, Jupiter Epima, Mars Homoth, Sun	Aquarius Oroasoer, Venus Astiro, Mercury Thepisathras, Moon	Pisces Archathapias, Saturn Thopibui, Jupiter Athembui, Mars

It’s a pity that I cannot find a complete list of these figures that represent the decans.

And the lastly, on the four corners are winged heads representing the four main winds, only one is depicted here.

 

Source:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/gtosiris/page11-14.html

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org

al-Sufi’s Book of Fixed Stars

 

 

The front page from Al-Sufi’s Kitab suwar al-kawakib, this one is a copy from year 1417

al-Sufi was a Persian astronomer who worked in Isfahan and Baghdad during the golden age of Islam. His most famous work is the Kitab suwar al-kawakib, “Book of the Constellations of the Fixed Stars” (986) which described the 48 constellations from Ptolemy’s Almagest.

The book was illustrated with observations and descriptions of the stars, their positions, their magnitudes and their color. For each constellation, he provided two drawings, one from the outside of a celestial globe, and the other from the inside. For each of the constellations, he provides the indigenous Arab names for their stars, drawings of the constellations, and a table of stars showing their locations and magnitude. The Kitab suwar al-kawakib initiated further work on astronomy in the Islamic worlds, and exercised a huge influence on the development of science in Europe. The work was frequently copied and translated. This copy, from the collections of the Library of Congress, was produced somewhere in south or central Asia, circa 1730, and is an exact copy of a manuscript, now lost, prepared for Ulug Beg of Samarkand (present-day Uzbekistan) in 1417.

Here are the 48 constellations from the copy of his book, sorted by page, which is basically from the north to south.

Ursa Minor The small bear with long tail.

Ursa Major The large bear with long tail.

Draco The dragon.

 

Auriga The charioteer.

Boötes The herdsman.

Hercules The club is replaced with a sickle.

 

Corona Borealis The tiara.	Lyra The lyre.

 

 

 

Cygnus The hen.

Cassiopeia  The seated woman, seating on a cushioned chair

Perseus  The hero, holding the severed head of a demon instead of Medusa

 

Cepheus The king.

Ophiuchus and Serpens The snake holder holding the large snake.

Sagitta The arrow. It looks similar with Coma Berenices.

 

 

 

Aquila The Falcon.

Delphinus The dolphin. Looks more like a cat or a fox.

Equuleus The little horse.

 

Pegasus The winged horse.

Andromeda Andromeda

Triangulum The Triangle

 

Aries The ram.

Taurus The bull.

Gemini The twins.

 

Cancer The crab.

Leo The lion. Here it is a female lion.

Virgo The virgin. Here the ear of corns has been replaced with wings.

 

Libra The scales.

Scorpio The scorpion. I thought since the Arabs live close to the desert, they supposed to have a good knowledge about scorpion anatomy, but no …

Sagittarius The archer. He wears a turban!

 

Capricorn The sea-goat. Weirdly, the fish tail is missing.

Aquarius The water pourer. depicted holding the water as if it is a robe

Pisces The fishes.

 

Cetus The sea monster.

Orion Instead of a shield, his west hand is shown with a long sleeve, characteristic of Muslim dresses at that time

Eridanus The river Eridanus.

 

Lepus The hare.

Canis Major The great dog. Those stars below are probably Columba.

Canis Minor The lesser dog.

 

Argo Navis  The ship.	Hydra The sea serpent.

 

Crater The cup.

Corvus The raven.

Centaurus and Lupus  The Centaurs and the Wolf. Instead of being impaled, Lupus is shown held by Centaurus

 

Ara The altar

Corona Australis The shell of a tortoise?

Piscis Austrinus The southern fish, with the prominent star Fam al-Hut (Fomalhaut) on its mouth.

 

Source:

http://muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?TaxonomyTypeID=18&TaxonomySubTypeID=107&TaxonomyThirdLevelID=-1&ArticleID=833

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/world/heavens.html

http://www.wdl.org/