- Star Tales - Pavo (ianridpath.com)
The peacock is one of the 12 figures introduced into the southern skies at the end of the 16th century from the observations by the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. Pavo seemingly represents not the common blue, or Indian, peacock commonly seen in parks but its larger, more colourful, and more aggressive cousin, the Java green peacock which Keyser and de Houtman would have encountered in the East Indies. Pavo was first depicted in 1598 on a globe by Petrus Plancius and first appeared in print in 1603 on the Uranometria atlas of Johann Bayer. As visualized by Plancius and Bayer the peacock had a more expansive tail, but its feathers were later trimmed by Lacaille to make room for his own invention Telescopium to the north.
- Kepler (archive.org)
In order to emphasise the importance of the reforms introduced into astronomy by Kepler, it will be well to sketch briefly the history of the theories which he had to overthrow. In very early times it must have been realised that the sun and moon were continually changing their places among the stars. The day, the month, and the year were obvious divisions of time, and longer periods were suggested by the tabulation of eclipses. We can imagine the respect accorded to the Chaldaean sages who first discovered that eclipses could be predicted, and how the philosophers of Mesopotamia must have sought eagerly for evidence of fresh periodic laws.
- Pavo (constellation) (Wikipedia)
Pavo is a constellation in the southern sky whose name is Latin for “peacock”. Pavo first appeared on a 35-cm (14 in) diameter celestial globe published in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius and was depicted in Johann Bayer’s star atlas Uranometria of 1603, and was likely conceived by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. French explorer and astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille gave its stars Bayer designations in 1756. The constellations Pavo, Grus, Phoenix and Tucana are collectively known as the “Southern Birds”.
