![]() ![]() Constellations are now usually represented as line figures, with the stars connected by imaginary lines. The constellation figures form a visual communication system in some ways similar to characters in a written script they are more or less complex in form, may or may not resemble the animal, human figure, or object that they were named after, and may or may not have been drawn similarly in unrelated cultures. They designed constellations as groups of stars, which were named and assigned a practical utility or a background story. In a minority of sky regions, certain line designs appear universal, but this is not the norm: in the majority of sky regions, the line geometries are diverse.įor sky watchers through time, the night sky was a canvas to be filled with symbols. Our results show distinct types of line figures, and that many folk astronomies with oral traditions have widespread similarities in constellation design, which do not align with cultural ancestry. Finally, we measure the diversity (or entropy) index for the set of constellations drawn per sky region. We then form the network of constellations (as linked by their similarity), to study how similar cultures are by computing their assortativity (or homophily) over the network. First, an embedded map of constellations is learnt, to show clusters of line figures. ![]() ![]() We analyse 1802 line figures from 56 sky cultures spanning all continents, in terms of their network, spatial, and brightness features, and ask what associations exist between these visual features and culture type or sky region. In some sky cultures, constellations are represented as line (or connect-the-dot) figures, which are spatial networks drawn over the fixed background of stars. In traditional astronomies across the world, groups of stars in the night sky were linked into constellations-symbolic representations rich in meaning and with practical roles.
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