Wandering Stars

Neptune - From 'Heaven & Earth - Unseen by the Naked Eye' Phaidon Press Ltd. 2007

As humans, our obsession with the night sky is ancient and modern. Regardless of impressive advances in technology that has resulted in knowledge of our universe, there remains a mystery and intrigue of the unknown that is both inspiring and frightening. 

The word 'planet' comes from the greek term 'πλάνητες ἀστέρες' meaning 'wandering stars'. Ancient Greek astronomers noticed that certain lights moved about the night sky in in comparison to other stars, and thus the poetic term 'wandering stars' was born. 

All pre-modern societies believed the stars and planets circled the Earth, and the Earth was the centre of the universe. 

Printed rendition of a geocentric cosmological model from Cosmographia, Antwerp, 1539 

From a design perspective,  the concentric rings of this model immediately appeal to me. The gradual, circular and repetitive visual elements reflect the planetary movements of what was once thought to be undisputed knowledge: Geocentricism - the Earth at the Centre of the Universe. 

Above: Illustration of the Ptolemaic (Geocentric) system of astrology. By Andres Cellarius, 1660.

In the Geocentric model, the Earth was believed to remain totally still whilst the planets, stars and sun circled it

Above: Geocentricism was overthrown by Helioentricism in the 16th Century. 

Copernicus and Galileo discovered that the planets circled the sun. ('Helios' meaning 'Sun' in Greek)

 Above: The Greek astronomer, philosopher and mathematician Aristarchus of Samos [ circa 310 B.C. - 230 B.C. ] first proposed a heliocentric model of the universe about 1,700 years before Copernicus. He is best known for his pioneering attempts to determine the sizes of and distances to the moon and sun. 

The sheer antiquity of this curious nature we possess to understand our universe is of great interest to me. These diagrams show humanity's development of the knowledge of our existence on here on Earth. Although basic in geometric shape and form, the development they signify is far from the previous beliefs of geocentricism and the idea that the Earth was flat. 

The models (above) show my initial inspiration in terms of shape, form and silhouette in design. To continue and expand, however, research into planetary orbits is the next step.