Historical Star Charts of Ophiuchus - Ophiuchus Backwards and Forwards: The charts below are actually based on up-dated versions of Ptolemy's Al Magest Star Catalogue, though the catalogue was first written some fifteen hundred years before they were drawn. During the Renaissance, Ptolemy's work became freely available once again, which lead to the production of new catalogues and the drawing, for the first time, of accurate maps of the skies. Note the stars in Ophiuchus feet lying below the Ecliptic, just as in the excerpt from Ptolemy's Star Catalogue given above.
Except... that since antiquity the figure on the left has reversed. From the Star Catalogue entries, Ptolemy's Ophiuchus figure was facing towards us with his left leg slightly below the Ecliptic, resting on Scorpius and his right leg further below the Ecliptic. Many Renaissance drawings have him facing away from us, right leg on Scorpius. In this they seem to all follow Johann Bayer's incorrect drawing of 1603. However, as early as 1604, Johannes Kepler [below right] had improved on Bayer's mistake and produced a correct map which shows the figure of Ophiuchus that the Ancient Greeks would have seen in the heavens. After a fifteen hundred year sleep, the Ophiuchus of the Greeks - and his Ecliptic problems - were reborn.
A star chart of Ophiuchus, from Uranometria, Johann Bayer, Augsburg, 1603 AD
A star chart of Ophiuchus, from De stella nova in pede serpentarii, Johann Kepler, Prague, 1606 AD
A star chart of Ophiuchus. From Uranometria, Johann Bayer, Augsburg, 1603 AD. The black and white line passing through the legs of Ophiuchus is the Ecliptic. The hatched area at the bottom of the drawing presents the band above the Ecliptic of the 7° Planetary Zodiac as known at the time. Ophiuchus holds Serpens, the Serpent. Compared to the Classical Greek Ophiuchus two things are wrong with the figure: Ophiuchus has his back to us, and his legs extends too far below the Ecliptic.
