The Constellations: How They Came to Be by Roy A. Gallant

The Constellations: How They Came to Be" by Roy A. Gallant is less a book about stellar formation and the Big Bang than a book about the many legends based around the constellations in the sky. Sure, some information about the star clusters, galaxies and nebulae that you'll find in or near the constellations are included, but it's mainly myths and stories you'll be presented with when you read the book.

And only for the more northern of the constellations at that. mainly because there aren't many interesting stories told about the southern constellations. Or at least, not most of them. Most were named by a man named Louis Lacaille, and he named the constellations after scientific instruments. So you have constellations like the Chisel or The Water Clock. The Air Pump. The Telescope. The American Indian. Not known to ancient peoples, and therefore, no stories.

But there are still the Northern Constellations, and that is where the book shines. Although it excuses itself by saying most people reading the book won't be able to see the Southern Constellations as an excuse for not including them. I think some of them, like the story of the Southern Cross, should have been included. And there was the Constellation of Argo Navis, eventually broken up into three parts, that could also have been included. And the River... and the Phoenix. Well, all that is water under the bridge.

In any case, the book begins with the circumpolar stars, those that never set in the northern sky, such as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, and tells the story of Callisto, one of Zeus's lovers, who Hera turned into a Bear. callisto wandered the woods in bear form for years, until she saw her son in the forest, and went to him to hug him. Her son, thinking the bear was about to attack him, turned to shoot it with his bow until Zeus intervened and turned the son into a bear as well, then pulled them into the sky by their tails to set them in the Heavens, thus explaining the long tails on both Bears, whereas other bears have short tails. Of course, when Hera found out that Zeus put them in the heavens, she went to Poseidon and asked him to pen them in the sky and never let them rest beneath the waves like the other stars. Poseidon agreed, and that is why these two constellations never set and are always in the sky.

Other tales exist for these constellations, and these are related as well, along with the reasons for the names of stars and the origins of those names. For instance, Algol, the star in the constellation of Perseus, representing the head of Medusa that Perseus carried, means "Demon's Head" or more properly, is contracted from Ra's al Ghul "Head of the Demon". And now those who read the Batman comics know what the villain Ra's al Ghul got his name from and what it means.

After the Polar Stars, the book goes through the rest of the stars and constellations by season, choosing the season when they are most visible in the sky, starting with summer and ending in Spring. Each constellation is well covered, most with two or three legends told about each, but some of the longest-lived have more, some centered around the stars in the constellation. Star groupings like the Pleiades and Berenice's Hair are also covered.

There is some talk about the stars themselves, and what magnitude means, and so on, but this is mainly about the stories told about the northern constellations. I would have liked to have seen *all* 88 constellations covered, but for what it has, it does pretty well. It proposes to be a guide to the constellations as well, but really, there are better books for that. So, read this book for the stories and explanations of the star names. Yeah. it's a book for kids, mainly, but if you want it for anything other than the mythology, it would be more worth it to invest in a more grown-up style, adult book.