STARS AND CONSTELLATIONS

The stars’ ancient names contain a lot of information. Take Virgo for example: its mag. +1.0 alpha star Spica marks the maiden’s left hand and means ‘ear of grain’, revealing she’s holding some wheat. Mag. +3.4 Auva (Delta (b Virginis) means ‘barking’ and mag. +3.55 Zavijava (Beta (`) Virginis) ‘corner’. Arabic legend has it that the constellation contained a kennel, formed by Beta (`), Eta (d), Gamma (a), Delta (b and Epsilon (¡), which was home to dogs barking at Leo.