4:00

which was pretty popular for 250 years. Oh

4:03

yeah, and Hadrian named a constellation after him.

4:07

Which actually seems quite low key

4:09

after the city and the cult. Let's

4:12

hear it for Apis, the bees. Not

4:15

to be confused with Apis, the

4:17

bee. Apis, the bees,

4:20

was renamed Vesper, the wasp, to

4:22

avoid confusion with Apis, the bee. But

4:25

you know what really would have avoided confusion is if

4:28

Petrus Plankius, the astronomer who named them,

4:30

yes both of them, had had

4:32

more range than the bee and

4:34

the bees. Other

4:37

insects are available. So

4:39

Apis, the bees, became Vesper, the wasp,

4:41

which then became Musca Borealis, the fly,

4:43

the northern fly. Not to be confused

4:46

with the southern fly, Musca Australis, which

4:48

was just the newer name for that

4:50

old rival Apis, the bee. But

4:52

Musca Australis, the southern fly, is

4:55

the overall winner. Because it is

4:57

still in the official constellations club.

5:00

Although now it's just called Musca, the fly,

5:02

because it doesn't need to distinguish itself from

5:05

the other Musca, because that no longer exists.

5:07

Its stars are now part of Aries. Bye

5:10

bees! There's only room in the

5:12

sky for one bee. Even

5:14

though it's a bee in a fly costume. Let's

5:18

hear it for Orania, the long-legged

5:21

spider. That was another one

5:23

named by John Hill, who had a real

5:25

portfolio career. He started out as an apothecary,

5:27

but when he got married young, he needed

5:29

more money, so he tried botany as a

5:31

side hustle. And when that turned out not

5:34

to be where the big money is, he

5:36

tried to become an actor. And

5:38

when that turned out not to be where the

5:40

big money is, he wrote a very angry rant

5:43

about the theatre owners and the other actors, and

5:45

after that, his career in theatre was as dead

5:47

as the constellation Orania. Supposedly,

5:50

he was such a bad actor

5:52

that even though he was an

5:54

actor and an apothecary, he couldn't

5:56

get cast in Romeo and Juliet

5:58

in the role. of the Apothecary.

6:02

Let's hear it for Argo Navis, the

6:04

ship Argo. It was a huge constellation,

6:06

our largest constellation now is Hydra and

6:09

the late Argo Navis was 28% bigger

6:12

than that. But such

6:14

a whopping constellation was considered impractically

6:17

enormous. So in

6:19

1930, the IAU split this

6:21

celestial supership into three official

6:24

constellations, the sail, the keel

6:27

and the poop deck. Isn't

6:29

it a bit weird to have a poop deck without

6:31

a ship to go with it? There

6:34

was also a nearby constellation called

6:36

Malus, the mast, but that was

6:38

later abolished too. We

6:41

remember Asselus Borealis and Asselus Australis,

6:43

the northern as and the southern

6:45

as. Two donkeys. What

6:48

did you think I was talking about? We

6:51

remember Asterion and Kara, the two dogs.

6:53

The dog names were thanks to a

6:55

misprint about 2100 years

6:58

ago. The Greek astronomer Ptolemy described

7:00

these constellations as clubs and

7:03

when his work was later translated into Arabic,

7:06

club was rendered as staff with

7:08

a hook and the Arabic word for

7:10

hook looks very similar to the Arabic

7:12

word for dogs. So this

7:14

later all got translated into Latin as dogs

7:17

with spears. Sure,

7:19

why not? Some dogs will play fetch with anything

7:21

stick shaped. Let's

7:24

hear it for the battery of Volta,

7:26

named to commemorate the invention of the

7:29

electric battery by Alessandro Volta. There

7:31

was quite a lot of cutting edge technology

7:33

in the ex-constellations. There was Globus

7:35

Aerostaticus, the hot air balloon, named in 1798 for

7:38

the invention of the

7:40

hot air balloon. And there

7:42

was Mackinac Electrica, the electrical generator,

7:45

and Ophacina Typographica, the printing

7:47

office, named in honour of

7:49

the Gutenberg printing press. But

7:52

what technology do we have in the stars now? Just

7:55

a plow? Where's

7:57

the air fryer? We

8:00

remember Bufo the Toad, that's another

8:02

one by John Hill, who along

8:04

with the apothecarying and acting also

8:07

published novels and plays and an

8:09

opera and wrote about geology and

8:11

honey and insects and wood and

8:13

moss and wrote a 650 page

8:15

dictionary of astronomy. However,

8:19

none of these were his biggest claim to fame,

8:22

which will become clear in the course

8:24

of this Tranquilusionist. Let's

8:27

hear it for Cancer Miner, the Lesser

8:29

Crab, now incorporated into which constellation of

8:32

the zodiac? No, not

8:34

Cancer, it's part of Gemini, obviously.

8:38

Let's hear it for Capra and Heide, the

8:41

goat star and the two baby goats.

8:43

Capra was a mythical goat who suckled

8:45

the baby Zeus. Capra was

8:48

supposedly so ugly that when she died

8:50

and Zeus took her skin as a

8:52

souvenir and wore it in combat, he

8:54

defeated the Titans in battle because they were

8:56

like, ooh, ooh, ooh, how am I supposed

8:58

to fight looking at that? It looks

9:01

like a dead goat that's been flayed, gross.

9:04

And even if it had been alive, that

9:06

goat wouldn't have been hot. Oh

9:09

no, no, we've died and Zeus is in

9:11

charge. And that's how Zeus got to be

9:13

in charge. You do learn a lot from the

9:15

skies. Let's

9:18

hear it for Cerberus, the three headed dog. Let's

9:21

hear it for Costus Messium, the harvester of

9:23

wheat. Let's hear it

9:25

for Dentalium, the pointy tooth shell. That's

9:27

another one of John Hill's. John Hill wrote

9:29

a 26 volume book about plants,

9:32

but didn't name any constellations after

9:34

plants. Let's

9:37

hear it for Felis, the cat. The French

9:39

astronomer Jerome La Land named that one. He

9:41

said, the starry sky has worried me quite

9:43

enough in my life so that now I

9:45

can have my joke with it. Jerome

9:48

La Land was a cat guy and he

9:50

wanted there to be a cat in the

9:52

sky. There were big cats in the sky,

9:54

lions and elinks, but he wanted there to

9:57

be a cat cat. And he got

9:59

one. just not forever. Alas,

10:02

no pet is forever. Let's

10:05

hear it for Frederiki Onores, aka

10:07

Gloria Frederica, meaning Frederick's honors

10:10

or Frederick's glory. The

10:13

astronomer Johann Bode named that after

10:15

King Frederick of Prussia, who had

10:17

died the previous year. Well, what's

10:19

the point, Johann? He's not gonna

10:21

know! There are so many

10:23

royal sycophancy ex-constellations. There's

10:26

core Coroli Regis Martyris, the heart

10:28

of King Charles the Martyr. King

10:31

Charles' other organs remain unaccounted for

10:33

in the skies. There's

10:35

Gladiie, Electorales Saxonychae,

10:38

the crossed swords of the Electorate of

10:40

Saxony. There's Saltarium

10:42

Georgie, George III's harp.

10:45

Are we supposed to have constellations for

10:48

all the monarchs' possessions? Because monarchs tend

10:50

to have a lot of stuff. They've

10:52

got all these royal items that used

10:55

to be in the sky. Taurius Poniatovii,

10:57

the Bull of Stanislav Poniatowski, King of

10:59

Poland. There's Poemum Imperiale, the orb of

11:02

the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. There's

11:05

Sceptrum Brandenbergicum, the

11:07

Scepter of the Royal Family of Brandenburg. The

11:09

Scepter is the stick royals hold, to signify

11:11

they're better than you. There's

11:14

another Scepter ex-constellation, Sceptrum

11:16

Aimarnus Eustitiae, the Scepter and Hand

11:18

of Justice in honour of King

11:21

Louis XIV of France, the Sun

11:23

King. Here's a

11:25

new rule, anyone who owns a Scepter

11:27

does not get a constellation as well. Let's

11:31

hear it for Gallus the Cockrol. It's

11:33

now part of the Poop-Tech. Let's

11:36

hear it for Grafitis, the Devil's

11:38

toenail mollusk, Hippocampus the

11:40

seahorse, and Hyrudo the leech,

11:43

all three named by John Hill.

11:46

He's having a great time making the sky

11:48

his aquarium. Let's hear

11:50

it for Jordanas the River Jordan and

11:53

another river constellation that has been dumped,

11:55

the Tigris. I agree with

11:57

getting rid of these constellations as stars were used

12:00

for navigation and those are real rivers

12:02

on Earth so if someone says turn

12:04

left at the Rigotyegris, what

12:06

if you guess whether it's the Earth

12:08

one or the Sky one and get it wrong

12:10

it's dangerously confusing. Like how there

12:13

shouldn't be two places called Vancouver on the

12:15

same train line, a friend visiting me here

12:17

has been caught out by that twice. Let's

12:21

hear it for Leo Palatinus, a Palatine

12:23

Lion, named to honour the German aristocrats

12:25

who were patrons of the observatory. This

12:28

constellation did not catch on more widely

12:30

though, because the thing about naming constellations

12:33

to suck up to your patrons is

12:35

that other astronomers don't need to give

12:37

a toenail mollusk about that. Let's

12:40

hear it for Limax, the slug,

12:44

named by guess who John

12:46

Hill. He called slugs naked

12:49

snails, which I

12:51

guess is accurate enough but naked

12:54

snail sounds a

12:56

bit pervy to me like he's enjoying this a bit too

12:58

much. Let's

13:01

hear it for Linum Pisium, the fishing line.

13:03

Oh come on, any series of stars can look

13:05

like a fishing line. Let's

13:07

hear it for Lockium Funis, the log

13:10

line, used by seafarers for measuring ship

13:12

speed. The log line was a log

13:14

attached to a rope with a series of knots along

13:16

it and they would throw the log off the ship

13:18

and count how fast the rope on the board. From

13:21

this we get the term knot for nautical speed

13:24

and we got terms like logbook and log in, which

13:27

is more of a legacy than this

13:29

constellation, which nearly all astronomers refuse to

13:31

acknowledge. Any series of stars can

13:33

look like a log line. Let's

13:36

hear it for Lumbricus,

13:38

the earth whale, named

13:41

by John Hill. John Hill

13:43

wrote satirical scientific papers about

13:46

unicorn horns and pretending that

13:48

water could turn into maggots.

13:50

He was probably naming these constellations as

13:52

jokes too, which why

13:54

not. We're

14:06

just going to take a quick break from space

14:08

for the earthly concern of paying the bills.

14:12

Thanks to Bombass for supporting the illusionist

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and for making such comfortable and dependable

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clothing. I just got home

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from Tor where I was living out of a

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suitcase for several weeks and needed to pack light

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and didn't have the space to bring any sweaters.

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So when I packed it was

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early August, it was hot, I couldn't even

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tolerate acknowledging the existence of sweaters or any

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clothes that would make me feel more warm. But

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I did have the sense to

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pack my most useful garment, my

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Bombass long-sleeved Merino t-shirt. It

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packs down very small, it's lightweight

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and breathable, but lovely

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and warm so when suddenly in

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September it got cold, I

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could layer it under my summery shirts. For

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insulation, then I ended up wearing it every

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it's lucky that it is washable and it

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and use the code

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homechef.com/Illusionist. And now we

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return to space and the X Constellations.

16:37

Next up another John

16:39

Hill special, Manis the

16:41

Pangolin. Cool choice I say.

16:43

Let's hear it

16:46

for Mamo Scovtile, the bust of

16:48

Christopher Columbus. Shut up, no! His

16:51

name is already on too much of the

16:53

earth, keep him out the skies as well.

16:55

This constellation was on a star map designed in

16:57

1810 by William Crosswell, a

17:00

cartographer from Boston and he came up

17:02

with two constellations that only appear on

17:04

his own map, the bust of Columbus

17:06

and Scurious Volans, the flying squirrel.

17:08

I think he should have

17:11

been allowed to keep the flying squirrel. Let's

17:14

hear it for Mons Minalis, named after

17:16

a mountain in Greece that bristles with

17:19

mythical beasts. Let's

17:21

hear it for Noctua, the owl. Let's

17:24

hear it for Patella, the limpet, named

17:26

by John Hill, as

17:28

well as being a prolific writer and

17:30

name of constellations. John Hill

17:32

was a notorious troll and

17:35

he had beaves with many of London's

17:37

high profile writers. One of

17:39

the most famous, Henry Fielding, used

17:41

to refer to John Hill as

17:43

the little paltry dung hill, to

17:46

the point where something called the Paper

17:48

War erupted, where writers would publish essays

17:50

and poems critiquing Hill in the newspapers

17:52

and Hill would swipe back in the

17:55

newspapers. Presumably there was no actual news

17:57

to print because this paper war raged

17:59

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times over in the Allusionverse which

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The live streams are where you hang out

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And for added family fun, together we are

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randomly selected word from the dictionary

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Noun, geology. A

29:36

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wind-blown sand. Try

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