- Also known as Jordanus Fluvius or Jordanis, this constellation representing the river Jordan was introduced by the Dutchman Petrus Plancius on his celestial globe of 1612. He created it from the eight ‘unformed’ stars that Ptolemy had listed in the Almagest as lying outside the figure of Ursa Major. These stars are the modern Alpha and Beta Canes Venatici, Alpha, 31, and 38 Lyncis, and three others of uncertain identity (see here).