4. We ought to look at a star chart for the Southern Fish. At present it is located around declination 30º S. Tien Kang (β) is a rather insignificant little star and there must have been some special reason to give it a name, I thought. But - we should remember - the Chinese Tien Kang was a constellation, comprising not only β but also δ and ζ. The lastmentioned star does not appear in the picture below nor in the long list of stars of Piscis Austrinus given in Wikipedia. ... With δ and ζ it was the Chinese Tien Kang, the Heavenly Rope. Al Tizini mentioned the stars, now γ, α, and β of Grus, as the Tail, the Bright One, and the Rear One of the Fish - additional proof that our lucida of Piscis Australis was not his nā'ir of Al Hūt al Janūbiyy. η, θ, ι, and μ were Tien Tsien, Heavenly Cash ... Tien Tsien, the 'gold', is at present around 22h - cfr η which together with the other 3 stars (θ, ι, and μ) can be imagined as delineating a tetragon. Tien Kang (β, δ and ζ), the 'rope', seems to be rising somewhat later:
However, we need to look at the Crane (Grus) in order to find the bottom part of the old Southern Fish:
The changed letters explains why I could not find ζ in the modern version of the Southern Fish. It ('the Rear One of the Fish') is nowadays β Gruis. And α Gruis (Al Na'ir, the Flame) corresponds to the Chinese 'the Bright One of the Fish', with 'the Tail of the Fish' at γ Gruis. The old Southern Fish was lower down than our modern constellation is. And the mouth was located at right. In my elementary astronomy book it is noted that Al Na'ir is white, implying a question of why the name suggests another colour. The 'gold' constellation is above the 'tail of the rope' and the 'flame' is at the base of this Heavenly pair. If we move Orion to its place at spring equinox (north of the equator) 'a quarter ago', i.e. we reduce its right ascension from the current ca 6h to 0h, then Fomalhaut (α Piscis Austrini) will move correspondingly from ca 23h to 17h. And number 17, we have learnt from the G text, defines the beginning of a new sequence. 17 = 16 + 1 and 16 / 24 = ⅔. The old Fomalhaut ('Mouth of the Fish') was Al Na'ir (α Gruis), nowadays around 22h, and 'a quarter ago' it would have been around 22 - 6 = 16h. The mouth means the opening (beginning) and when there is a new fire it is stronger than an old one.
In the age of Orion Al Na'ir was rising at around 16h, or at around ⅔ of the cycle from spring equinox to spring equinox (north of the equator). Today the Mouth (α) of the Fish (Fomalhaut) is rising together with Sun around 6 hours earlier in the year. And today the Southern Fish has her eye looking towards 0h, not backwards as in the age of Orion.
(Turtle below and Crane stretching high.) |
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