3. The Dove is flying downwards: In Bode's picture Phakt (α) is not in the body of the bird but instead at the point where the right wing is attatched to the body. This is in contrast not only to the star map above but also to the drawing in Alexander Jamieson's Celestial Atlas: The pictures in Urania's Mirror are based on those in the Celestial Atlas, but e.g. has the number of feathers in the tail been changed to 6: Similarly has the feathers in the bird's right wing been changed from 4 + 6 = 10 to 3 + 5 = 8. If we assume the number of wing feathers in the other wing is also 8 in number, then we can count to 8 + 3 = 11 on both sides of the body. 11 is a Saturn number. Bode has λ and γ instead of α (Phakt) in the center (and we can see the belly of the bird):
The star of darkness (λ) has not been listed so far, but we can do it now:
It is evidently located where it should be, viz. coinciding with atariki and Betelgeuze. Bode knew what he was doing, because the Dove in the southern sky is defined as the bird which Noach released to seach for land (Columba Noachi) - 'land' implies light in opposition to 'sea'. Allen: "It was made up from the southwestern outliers of Canis Major, near to the Ship, - Noach's Ark, - and so was regarded as the attendant Dove. Smyth wrote of its modern formation, and of its nomenclature in Arab astronomy: Royer cut away a portion of Canis Major, and constructed Columba Noachi therewith in 1679. The part thus usurped was called Muliphein, from al-mulipheïn, the two stars sworn by, because they were often mistaken for Soheïl, or Canopus, before which they rise: these two stars are now α and β Columbae. Muliphein is recognized as comprehending the two stars called Had'ár, ground, and al-wezn, weight." This exercise can teach us that the sign γ probably means the opposite of λ - it corresponds to the reverse of the Egyptian cloth sign:
Allen, once again:
"Chilmead's Treatise has this brief description of Columba: 11 Starres: of which there are two in the backe of it of the second magnitude, which they call the Good Messengers, or bringers of good newes: and these in the right wing are consecrated to the Appeased Deity, and those in the left to the Retiring of the waters in the time of the Deluge." |