- Star Tales - Volans (ianridpath.com)
One of the 12 new constellations introduced at the end of the 16th century by the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. Volans represents a real type of fish found in tropical waters that can leap out of the water and glide through the air on wings. Sometimes the fish landed on the decks of ships and were used for food. In the sky the flying fish is imagined being chased by the predatory Dorado, as happens in reality.
- Riverworld (Wikipedia)
The Riverworld is a fictional planet and the setting for a series of five science fiction novels (1971–1983) by American author Philip José Farmer (1918–2009). The Riverworld is an artificial, or heavily terraformed, planet where all humans (and pre-humans) who ever lived throughout history have been restored to life. The novels (and a few shorter works) explore interactions of resurrected individuals from many different cultures and time periods. The underlying theme is quasi-religious. The motivations and ethics of the unknown intelligences that created the Riverworld and its inhabitants are explored.
- Volans (Wikipedia)
Volans is a constellation in the southern sky. It represents a flying fish; its name is a shortened form of its original name, Piscis Volans. Volans was one of twelve constellations created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman and it first appeared on a 35-cm diameter celestial globe published in 1597 (or 1598) in Amsterdam by Plancius with Jodocus Hondius. The first depiction of this constellation in a celestial atlas was in Johann Bayer’s Uranometria of 1603.
