Astronomy Without a Telescope
latinized bayer designation
- Through a Glass Lushly: Michalina Janoszanka’s Reverse Paintings (ca. 1920s) (publicdomainreview.org)
Michalina Janoszanka (1889–1952) is an artist better known for her role on the other side of the canvas, as the muse and mentee of famed Polish painter Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929). She posed for countless symbolist paintings, appearing alone, alongside Malczewski in double-portraits, among satyrs, and as Medusa. However, Janoszanka was more than a muse. She was also an artist in her own right. Trained in Kraków and Vienna, she became a strong oil painter. Her themes were traditional: portraits, still lifes, and religious scenes. But what most captured her mentor’s excitement, not to mention the attention of the Young Poland modernist art movement, was something else: the surreal, kaleidoscopic landscapes she painted directly onto glass.
- Eltanin (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
ELTANIN (Gamma Draconis). Because it was the pole star during a time of ancient Egypt, Thuban is the most famed star of Draco, the Dragon, and justly received Bayer’s Alpha designation even though at bright fourth magnitude it is hardly the constellation’s brightest star.
