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| Paper: |
RASC World Asterisms Project: An Introduction to the Skies of the World |
| Volume: |
537, ASP 2022: A Virtual Conference |
| Page: |
25 |
| Authors: |
Ennis, C. A.; Jewett, S. |
| Abstract: |
The people of the world come from a variety of social, educational, and cultural backgrounds. This means that even though they are looking up at exactly the same stars that you are, they see different patterns than you. Even within your own culture there will be differences. People have used the sky in any of the following ways: a calendar, a divination system, a navigational tool, a weather prediction system, and/or a place to honor their deities, their ancestors, or their culture. This is a practice that continues to this day. This World Asterisms Project is a living reconciliation project started in June 2021 by the Inclusivity and Diversity Committee of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada as a celebration of the sky cultures of the world. We are stewards of these records and are using the “Two Eyes Seeing” approach pioneered by Mi'kmaq elder Albert Marshall to recover their sky lore: the shared perspectives of astronomers and knowledge keepers. The list is growing as knowledge keepers, ethnoastronomers, and researchers investigate old records and interview elders and recover previously lost sky cultures and as projects such as the IAU's NameExoWorlds project evolve. The World Asterisms Project has so far examined over 500 of the world's cultures and recorded over 10,000 asterisms and over 1,400 names of the Sun, Moon, and Planets. These are available as free downloads from our website at https://rasc.ca/world-asterism-project. Charles Ennis, RASC President and founder of this project, and Samantha Jewett, RASC Outreach Coordinator, are your world sky tour guides. In this webinar they'll be engaging the participants with quizzes and polls to have them share their sky culture perspectives and to see if they can identify common themes in the world's sky cultures. |
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