Hevelius’s depiction of Scutum
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Scutum as shown by Johannes Hevelius in his Firmamentum Sobiescianum star atlas published in 1690. Here, the name of the constellation is abbreviated to Scutum Sobiescian. Hevelius decorated the shield with a shining cross in recognition of the fact that King John Sobieski and his forces helped repulse the Turkish siege of Vienna, the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1683. His constellation figure was constructed from seven stars of 4th and 5th magnitudes, three around the central cross and four others around the rim of the shield; the southernmost of these he described as “nebulous” but it is in fact a double star. Like all constellations in Hevelius’s atlas it is shown in mirror image, as on a celestial globe, but his initial diagram, published in the scientific journal Acta Eruditorum in 1684, showed it the right way round, as seen from Earth. Image © Tartu Observatory Virtual Museum.