Carpe Diem 819 Indus (indian native American or native Asian)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today I have a not so well known constellation for you to explore. It's Indus (indian, native American or native Asian). There is no mythology about this constellations. It is said that Petrus Plancius created it after seeing native people on Madagascar.

The constellation of Indus was originally created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Dutch sea navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman when exploring the southern hemisphere. Indus’ stellar patterns became known when it appeared on a celestial globe in 1597 and was considered a constellation when it was added to Johann Bayer’s Uranometria catalog in 1603. It survived the years to become one of the 88 modern constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Indus is located south of the ecliptic plane and covers approximately 294 square degrees of sky. It consists of three main stars in the primary asterism and has 16 stars with Bayer/Flamsteed designations. Indus is bordered by the constellations of Microscopium, Sagittarius, Telescopium, Pavo, Octans, Tucana and Grus.

Credits: Indus

Since the constellation of Indus wasn't created until late in the sixteenth century, there isn't any ancient mythology associated with its stellar patterns. However, Indus is meant to represent as a native – perhaps one met by the Dutch explorers on their travels in the Indies or Africa. It is also believed that Johannes Bayer wish to honor the native American Indians as well, so Indus was thus included in his works.

In the above image you can see that "Indus" borders the "Southern birds" as portrait earlier in this series.

hunting the stars
indians exploring the night sky
the cry of birds

© Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... not as strong as I had hoped, but in a way I am very pleased with this haiku. What do you think of it?

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 17th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, a new Tokubetsudesu episode, later on. For now ... be inspired and share your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form with us all here at our Haiku Kai.