Star Tales – Camelopardalis

One of the most unlikely animals to be found in the sky is a giraffe. The constellation Camelopardalis was invented in 1612 by the Dutch theologian and astronomer Petrus Plancius, who first showed it on a celestial globe in that year. It lies in an area between the head of the Great Bear and Cassiopeia, a region that was left blank by the Greeks because it contains no stars brighter than fourth magnitude.

The exact significance of the constellation is unclear. The German astronomer Jacob Bartsch included Camelopardalis on his map of 1624 and wrote that it represented the camel on which Rebecca rode into Canaan for her marriage to Isaac, as told in the book of Genesis. But Camelopardalis is a giraffe not a camel, so Bartsch’s explanation is unsatisfactory. Bartsch seems not to have known much about this constellation, for he wrongly attributed its invention to Isaac Habrecht of Strasbourg, who had shown it on his star globe of 1621.

On old maps the constellation’s name is also spelled Camelopardalus or Camelopardus. For a discussion of the correct spelling, see Harvard College Observatory Circular 146 (1908).

Above: The top half of Camelopardalis, shown in the Uranographia of Johann Bode (1801). Also included is the now-obsolete constellation of Rangifer, the reindeer.

Below: Camelopardalis depicted on Plate 2 of Urania’s Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in England in c.1825. Also shown are Tarandus, the reindeer by another name, and Custos Messium. (Image © Ian Ridpath.)