Talk:Apus

Pronunciation
/ˈeɪpəs/ what idiotic pronunciation is that? /ɑˈpuːs/ ('Ah-poos) wouldn't be impossible to pronounce even for those who speak nothing by English. Said: Rursus (☻) 20:46, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

Allen and Ridpath
I revised the paragraph added by about Allen's account of the history. In the first place, the suggestion that de Houtman's inspiration came from Chinese astronomy is not Allen's; Allen is simply reporting it, and mentions that it was disputed. But also, Ridpath does not address this; the referenced chapter simply indicates that Apus (and the other "Bayer's dozen") come from observations of Keyser and de Houtman, who sailed on the same voyage. BenEsq's source for Allen is a web site by Bill Thayer, who adds the following bizarre note:


 * According to Ian Ridpath, Chapter 1 of his book Star Tales the twelve new southern constellations were introduced later than that, and by different people altogether: Blaeu's Uranometria (1603) correctly credits them to Frederick de Houtman, who owed them in turn, however, to Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser, † 1596. (And thanks to Diana K. Rosenberg of Fixed Stars and Constellations for the heads-up.)

This misrepresents what Ridpath wrote. Ridpath makes clear that the observations were made separately by both Keyser and de Houtman (who were rivals sailing on the same voyage). Pieter Keyser was also known as "Peter Theodore", whom Allen does mention, so "later than that" and "different people altogether" are both wide of the mark. Ridpath writes that we don't know precisely who was responsible for the division of Keyser's and de Houtman's observations into the new constellations displayed on Plantius's globe that appeared very shortly afterward; it might have been any of the three of them, or some combination.

-- Elphion (talk) 17:25, 19 October 2014 (UTC)


 * I have removed that bit as I think it is not held elsewhere...and Allen wrote it in 1899...Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 14:50, 22 September 2016 (UTC)

"Next to each other"
I'm leaving this here rather than placing a [clarify] tag so as not to interfere with a GA review, but in the line "including two stars next to each other as Delta and another two stars near each other as Kappa" does "next to each other" mean that they are close in angle as viewed from earth (and if so how close), close to each other in three-dimensional space (and again, if so, how close) or actual binary star systems? —David Eppstein (talk) 00:29, 27 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Lacaille didn't have the means to tell whether stars were at the same distance, so angular separation is all that is claimed. The two deltas are fairly close (104 arcsec or about 1.7 arcmin); the two kappas much wider (about 38 arcmin). Neither pair is physically close in space. -- Elphion (talk) 03:20, 27 October 2016 (UTC)