I recently noticed that the default background for Ubuntu 23.04 “Lunar Lobster” has a purple star missing and now that i noticed it, i can’t unsee it. The one towards the bottom right is barely visible so that passes.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    You think that’s annoying, this is what the Ancient Greeks decided was a scorpion in the sky.

      • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
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        1 year ago

        Aries wasn’t even a constellation until some Greeks decided it was. They attached it to the mythical ram in the golden fleece myth. It looks a little ram-like with the full milky way behind it, but it’s not much of a constellation.

        For some reason astrology bullshit has taken over the entire internet when it comes to researching star signs. The story behind the ram is mentioned (copy pasted) everywhere but fails to tell how exactly Ptolomy made the connection.

            • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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              1 year ago

              Edit: So apparently what i first wrote up can be summarized as “Asterisms are more relevant and sensible than constellations”…

              original comment

              Especially nowadays with light pollution it’s easy to tell which constellations make sense, the top ones in the northern sky IMO being: Cassiopeia, Ursa Major, Orion, Cygnus (really just the middle 4 stars), and Ursa Minor but mostly because that’s got Polaris in it and it’s the most important star.

              Also fun anecdote: When i was a kid and didn’t know any constellations other than orion, cassiopeia, and ursa major; i independently recognized the middle 4 stars of cygnus and called it the Pilot because it looks like the front view of a jet fighter, so how’s THAT for being a sensible constellation!

            • burningmatches@feddit.uk
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              1 year ago

              Sure, but it’s still just some dudes playing join-the-dots in the sky. None of it means anything.

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
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      1 year ago

      Is it really that weird? You can’t see half the stars these days, but it’s really not that much of a stretch:

      Don’t forget that pre-electicity civilisations spent a lot of time looking up at the night sky. Any traveler had to learn how to use the stars to navigate, so if course they’d group stats together to create points of reference.

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      I’ve heard that not having access to actual dark skies free of light pollution makes it a lot harder to see/understand how people could see figures in constellations, and that extremely faint light from other stars, nebulas, etc adds to the experience. Allegedly it makes Orion’s belt easier to see. I’ve never had access to a sky dark enough to test it in person, though.

    • RogueBanana@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      Uh that one is a rare case of constellation actually look like what it’s supposed to be. It’s pretty easy to see the scorpion tail imo. Doesn’t have all the legs obviously but still close enough to consider it as one.