Stellar 2026

Welcome STELLAR educators and the NASA Educator Resource Center!

“Why did not somebody teach me the constellations, and make me at home in the starry heavens, which are always overhead, and which I don’t half-know to this day?” — Thomas Carlyle

Old books offer us the opportunity to recover meaning in what we do. The night sky is filled with hundreds of stories which remind us that a knowledge of the heavens has always been part of what makes us human.

What memories do you have of watching the stars? What stories do you like to tell about the night sky?

1. Constellations

1. In the Grand Foyer: Cuneiform brick, Choga Zanbil (ca. 1300 BCE). (Foyer)
   • Bayer’s depiction of ancient constellations.
2. Anonymous, Urania’s Mirror (London, 1824). Catalog. Constellation cards. Distinguish star patterns from constellation figures.
   • Urania’s Mirror leaflet.
   • Urania’s Mirror constellation cards (for coloring or study).
   • Friedrich Braun, Himmels Atlas in Transparenten Karten (1860). Catalog. Constellation cards.
   • More on constellations:
     • Constellation sample leaflet: Orion.
     • Handout (PDF): Six Constellations.
     • Activity leaflet: Constellation tubes.
     • Constellations intro and activities.
   • Ptolemy, Almagest, in Opera (“Works”; Basel, 1541). Johann Honter drew constellation figures after the manner of Albrecht Dürer.
   • King James Bible (1611). Catalog. Sample KJV pages.
   • Johann Bayer, Uranometria (“Measuring the Heavens”; Ulm, 1661), bound with Johann Bayer, Explicatio characterum (Ulm, 1697). 1st “Golden atlas.” Catalog.
     • Bayer’s depiction of ancient constellations.
   • Johann Kepler, De stella nova in pede Serpentarii (Prague, 1606). Catalog.
     • Kepler’s explanation of the Star of Bethlehem.
   • William Schickard, Astroscopium (1698). Catalog.
     • Create your own astroscopium. Download templates: Plate 1 (tiff); Plate 2 (tiff).
   • Hevelius star atlas. 2nd “Golden Atlas.” Catalog. The OU copy includes three books that were published separately. Unusually, the original owner bound them together in this single binding: (1) Uranographia, or Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia (“The Firmament of King Sobiesci, or Map of the Heavens”; Gdansk, 1690); bound with (2) Prodromus Astronomiae (“Preliminary Discourse for Astronomy”; Gdansk, 1690); bound with (3) Catalogus stellarum fixarum (“Catalog of the Fixed Stars”; Gdansk, 1687). Can you find the title pages and frontispieces for each of these three books?
     • Elisabeth Hevelius leaflet.
   • Vincenzo Coronelli, celestial globe gores (Paris, 1693; reprint ca. 1800). Catalog.
     • These gores are likely out of order. Can you arrange them so that any that have borders with another are side-by-side? Visualize them as a globe in your mind.
     • Celestial globe leaflet.
   • Johann Bode, Uranographia (“Map of the Heavens”; Berlin, 1801). Catalog. 4th “Golden Atlas.”
     • Bode atlas leaflet.
     • Constellation sample leaflet: Coma Berenices.
     • PDF: Original plates (for coloring or study).
   • Planisphere: Maier, Drehbar Sternkarte (c. 1890).
   • Catherine Whitwell, An Astronomical Catechism (London, 1818). Catalog.
   • Nicholas Lane, pocket globe (London, 1809). With star map on concave surface of the case.
   • Diurnal motion leaflet (background for telling time by the stars)
   • Planisphere leaflet.
   • Nocturnal Dial (star clock).

Storytelling

• Follow the Drinking Gourd
• Halley Came to Jackson
• Fancy Nancy Sees Stars
• Hoot the Owl, by Anna Todd.
  • Download PDF: Hoot the Owl.
  • Blog post: Hoot the Owl Backstory.
• Middle Earth astronomy:
  • Blog post: Poem by Rachel Folmar.
  • Blog post: Explanation of poem.

Coloring pages: Flammarion, Urania’s Mirror, Bode.

Six Constellations.

• Orion.
• Coma Berenices.

Constellation tubes:

• Packing tape
• *Scissors
• Nails, wood base
• *Hammers

Celestial Globes

• Find the 6 constellations on your celestial globe.
• Trace the Zodiac on your globe.
  • Zodiac constellations handout.
  • Why is your horoscope out of date?.

Constellations intro and activities.

Go to the Ogilvie Room to view: astrolabes, orrery, pocket globe, sundials, cosmonaut doll.

Time of night: planispheres as star clocks

• Diurnal motion leaflet (background for telling time by the stars)
• Planisphere leaflet.
• Nocturnal Dial (star clock).

Stars mark the Seasons

• Chet Raymo: Winter Hexagon and Summer Triangle
• Robert Frost, “The Star Splitter”
• Starstruck Tonight (winter; summer)

Constellation resources

1. Starstruck Tonight: In a public presentation, Starstruck Tonight, Candace and I describe most of the astronomical works on display in this section, along with poetry and literature about the night sky.
2. Index for Chet Raymo, 365 Starry Nights, to quickly find the pages for any constellation.

Hold a star party:

• Current free monthly printable star map with planets.
• Volunteer amateur astronomers: OKC Astro Club; Lunar Sooners
• Daytime: Sun telescope

2. Music of the Spheres

1. Camille Flammarion, L’Atmosphere (Paris, 1888). Flat-Earth woodcut.
   • Boldy go… leaflet.
   • Download images: original black and white (tiff, for coloring); colorized version (tiff) by Susanna Joy Magruder. Cf. Blog post.
   • Video presentation: Shape of the Earth.
   • Website archive: “This is not a medieval woodcut.”
2. Peter Apian, Cosmographicum (1540).
   • Apian: Cosmic section and lunar eclipse.
3. Persian astrolabe, and Astrolabe replica.
4. Dante, Paradiso, illustrated by Gustave Doré. La Divina commedia (1883-1885), trans. Henry Cary.
5. Regiomontanus, Calendarium (Venice, 1476). Catalog.
6. Regiomontanus, Epitome of Ptolemy’s Almagest (Nuremberg, 1496). Catalog.
7. Copernicus, De revolutionibus (1543). Catalog.
   • Video presentation: Copernicus life and works tour.
8. Leonard Digges, addition by Thomas Digges. Leonard Digges, A prognostication euerlasting of right good effect…; Lately corrected and augmented by Thomas Digges his sonne (London, 1605). Catalog.
9. Johann Kepler, Mysterium cosmographicum (Tübingen, 1596). Catalog.
   • Kepler, Blueprints of the Universe leaflet.
   • Pythagorean solids leaflet.
10. Vincenzo Galilei, Dialogo della mvsica antica, et della moderna (“Dialogue on Music, Ancient and Modern,” Florence, 1581).
11. Johann Kepler, Harmonices mundi (“Harmony of the Universe,” Linz, Austria, 1619). Catalog.
    • Kepler, Harmony leaflet.
    • Music: Kepler suite, arranged for harp, flute and oboe, by Jonathan Annis (m4a). Short (2:25 mins). Original (10:13 mins).
    • Video presentation: Kepler life and works tour.
12. Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia universalis (Rome, 1650). Catalog.
13. Andreas Cellarius, Harmonia macrocosmica seu atlas universalis (Amsterdam, 1708). First edition: Atlas Coelestis (Amsterdam, 1660/61). This 1708 edition includes the frontispiece and all of the plates of the first edition and supplement.Catalog.
14. Delamarche orrery (Paris).
15. “Einstein,” in Steve Jobs, Think Different (1998). Leaflet.
16. Background: There is a brief “Music of the Spheres” overview in an Appendix of my book “George MacDonald and the Scientific Imagination.” (Blog post; forthcoming Winged Lion Press, September 2026.)

3. Astronomy, Art, and Engineering

1. Galileo, Sidereus nuncius (Venice, 1610). Catalog. Also a Facsimile.
   • Optics activity.
   • A Book Mystery (Sidereus whodunnit).
2. Johann Hevelius, Selenographia (1647). Catalog.
3. Leonardo da Vinci, in Luca Pacioli, De divina proportione (Venice, 1509). Catalog.
4. Albrecht Dürer, Institutionum geometricarum (Paris, 1535).
5. Lorenzo Sirgatti, La Pratica di Prospettiva (Venice, 1596). Catalog.
6. Jean François Niceron, La Perspectiva Curieuse (Paris, 1663). Catalog.
   • Make your own Alberti box, from Niceron.
7. Art and astronomy video:
   • IEEE VIS 2022: Thinking Visually keynote.
8. Agostino Ramelli, Le diverse et artificiose machine (Paris, 1588). Catalog.
9. Johann Schreck, “Marvelous Machines of the Far West.” First published in Beijing, 1630. Published as Ensei kiki zusetsu rokusai (Japan, 1830). Catalog.
   • Johann Schreck, Galileo’s friend in China.

4. From Airpumps to Airships

1. Otto Von Guericke, Experimenta nova (1672). Catalog.
2. Robert Boyle, Experiments touching the spring of the air (London, 1660). Catalog.
3. Robert Hooke, Philosophical Collections (London, 1679); flying machine by Lana Terzi. Catalog.
4. Isaac Newton, Opticks (London, 1704). Reflecting telescope, optics of the rainbow.
5. Cosmonaut doll. Presumably Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, 1963.

More resources

• Chet Raymo, 365 Starry Nights. (Index to quickly find the pages for any constellation.)
• Stillman Drake, Galileo: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford).
• Joyce McPherson, Universe of Wonder: The Story of Johannes Kepler (2026).
• skytonight.org: my star atlas digital project.
• Painters Prophets Poets blog post.
• kerrysloft.com: my personal blog; search for any names or topics. See the “videos” tab.
• lynx-open-ed.org: When you see references to “lynx-open-ed.org,” those resources will eventually reappear at kerrysloft.com or kerrymagruder.com. The Lynx Open Ed website crashed and no longer exists. I am slowly reconstructing it.
• kerrymagruder.com/hsci: Some of the brief videos from my OU undergraduate survey class, “History of Science, Beginning to Newton,” may be relevant (partial list of brief course videos; course playlist at youTube).

None of my own educational resources above represent the University of Oklahoma. The views and interpretations expressed are all my own.

University web pages:

• History of Science Collections
• Bizzell Bible Collection
• University of Oklahoma Libraries
• Current: repository.ou.edu. New: Digital Collections. Many of the books displayed are digitized and available in the library’s open access online library. They are currently migrating to a new platform.

Become a researcher at the OU History of Science Collections:

You are welcome to come back as a researcher. You do not need to be an academic scholar. There is a registration process. After that, the books will be brought to you in the Reading Room. It’s good to request the books in advance so they can be pulled and waiting for you. All this is explained on the web page for the History of Science Collections. Go to the University of Oklahoma Libraries website (libraries.ou.edu) and navigate to the page for the History of Science Collections. There you can register online, request the books you want to see ahead of time, and ask any questions you have for Collections staff. And then come and sit with the books.