Constellations As You’ve Never Seen Them Before at UW Planetarium

LARAMIE -- The Constellations Across Cultures Program is set for tonight, Friday, July 26, from 8 to 9 p.m. at the UW Harry C. Vaughn Planetarium, 1000 E. Ivinson Ave. in Laramie.

Bradon Bryngleson, a presenter with the Planetarium on the University of Wyoming campus, will take a detailed look at the constellations we know and love, and how they are depicted differently across different cultures, showing off other cultures constellations and stories along the way.

“What we’re going to do is to take the constellations that are recognized today – there are about 88 of them – and we will gaze upon what other cultures would have seen,” said Bryngleson.

“For example, in my show, I specifically do Chinese, Hawaiian, and Norse astrology. We take a look at some of the stories they have and how they saw the constellations, to get a wide-lens perspective on things.”

One of our summer constellations, Scorpio, the scorpion, Bryngleson finds most intriguing.

“That‘s how the Greeks saw him. The Hawaiians saw him as a hook, called ‘Maui’s Hook,’ or the fisherman’s hook. Maui is a deity in Hawaiian mythology.

“From the Norse perspective, the hook resembles a person hunched over. So to them, they saw a shuffling, dead zombie-like creature. In Norse mythology, a zombie is what’s called a Draugr, a spirit that didn’t get to the Norse heaven and is stuck wandering their crypts forever,” he said.

“The Chinese also saw it as a hook, but a different deity, who used the hook to drag up the land and the islands around China.

The Constellations Across Cultures Program is set for tonight, Friday, July 26, from 8 to 9 p.m. at the University of Wyoming’s Harry C. Vaughn Planetarium, 1000 E. Ivinson Ave. in Laramie.

Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door. In advance, you may purchase tickets online with a credit card. Note that online tickets sales close at 4 p.m. on the show date (Friday for Saturday shows) and all online tickets are $4, but kids under 5 are still free. Tickets will be available for pickup in the planetarium 20 minutes prior to the show.

Tickets can also be purchased in the planetarium 20 minutes before the show (cash or check only); $3 for student and $4 for non-students. Tickets for children under 5 are free.

Call 307-766-6506, email planetarium@uwyo.edu or go to the Planetarium web page for more information.