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9. The Mast of the Ship penetrates the 'wall' of the Milky Way:
It stretches from Carina up through Vela and to Alphard (α Hydrae). The Mast is a wooden beam leading like a bridge across both the Milky Way and the emptiness below Hydra. Cancer above (formed like λ) is the dimmest of the constellations on the path of Sun, but Alphard below is a bright star. The outline defined by the 4 earliest bright stars of Vela gives the direction to the top of the Mast, it leads from δ via λ
In Hevelius' picture we can let it begin already at ε, at the 2nd of the 4 starboard oars in the Keel:
The face of Sun has been drawn on the shield inside the primary Vela quadrangle. To the right there is a shield with the face of Moon and the 3rd shield has a triangle standing on its base:
The cupformed shield to the left of the Mast (and a little lower) has the face of a man (in shadows). But I cannot discern what is drawn on the shield which carries Naos in its corner. It is the highest of the 5 major shields. Alsuhail (λ Velorum) is drawn on the central of a triplet of straight 'threads' keeping the mast in place. The one to the left leads up from the Sun shield and the one on the right up from the Moon shield. |
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