Heavens Above! It’s a map of the stars, a painting of the constellations of the northern sky, the hemisphere boreal. At the very centre is Polaris – the Pole star in the tail of Ursa Minor (the Little Bear),  so what you’re seeing is a view of the heavens as seen from the North Pole. 

A map of the stars

The map of the stars includes all the zodiac constellations and many others such as Ursa Major, Draco and Pegasus – as well one or two surprises! Five of the brightest stars in order of magnitude are shown: Arcturus (in Boötes – the ploughman or herdsman), Vega (in Lyra – the harp), Capella (in Auriga – the charioteer), Altair (in Aquila – the eagle) and Aldebaran (in Taurus – the bull).

I have always been intrigued by antique star charts by people like Johannes Hevelius, Reiner Ottens, and Sidney Hall who published the profoundly beautiful Urania’s Mirror in 1824. I’m not ashamed to say that I raided their back-catalogue! It’s important to learn from the masters, after all.

The painting began simply as a way for me to learn about what’s up there and an excuse to paint a lot of stars with white ink, but it soon took on a life of it’s own. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that for all the heroes from Greek mythology wheeling around up there, the underlying themes were discovery and the human need to make sense of our place in the cosmos; in a word, science.

So why is David Bowie ‘floating in a most peculiar way’ playing Ziggy’s guitar? What’s Apollo 11 doing there? What’s with the Space Shuttle? Why two Endeavours? And why are East and West the wrong way around? If you want to know more you’ll have to read this blog…

Want to know more about astronomy? Here’s the ultimate beginner’s guide!