For some people the stars were the windows of the world, for others, its eyes, from which burst rays of light or from which insects pour forth towards Earth. For certain civilization in the northern hemisphere the North Star was seen as the opening in the sky that linked different worlds and through which heroes passed on their way to join the gods or to return from the heavens to Earth.The position of other stars can be determined by this star, which contributed to the idea of the stars as horses and the North Star the stake to which they are tethered. It is by means of this star that nomads, navigators and later, the first aviators found their bearings.

Adapted from The Sky Order and Chaos

In the current era, Polaris lies nearly in a direct line with the axis of the Earth’s rotation “above” the North Pole — the north celestial pole — Polaris stands almost motionless on the sky, and all the stars of the Northern sky appear to rotate around it. Therefore, it makes an excellent fixed point from which to draw measurements for celestial navigation and for astrometry.

My project is named findingpolaris is because just like the ancients who used Polaris as a navigational point and studied the skies, I have embarked on a journey in this project, performing the same action of looking up, finding the North star Polaris, going back to the celestial sphere that is held motionless above us all along yet we pay so little attention to them while they stay infinitely high. And as I start to construct and craft my own celestial sphere, to find the North Star, pivotal point in my life that then charts the rest of the positions of my stars and constellations.

The North Star is also the focus in my life which is always fixed above me, and my guide and navigation in life, which is associated to the God of my life as well (:

(my logo below is subjected to change after seeing these amazing star-trail images of Polaris!)

i cannot find a theme to suit this somewhat visual identity that im coming up with! information and data up soon.

I’m elena from NTU School of Art, Design and Media and this is my system project blog from my graphicdesignIV class. Will be posting up latest findings, images, facts and maps from my stellar and astronomical research.

till then,
continue to venture skywards, into the unknown, into the mysterious
into the universe which we know so little of.

this ultraviolet image from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows NGC 3242, a planetary nebula frequently referred to as “Jupiter’s Ghost.”

When stars with a mass similar to our sun approach the end of their lives by exhausting supplies of hydrogen and helium fuel in their cores, they swell up into cool red-giant stars. In a last gasp before death, they expel the layers of gas in their outer atmosphere. This exposes the core of the dying star, a dense hot ball of carbon and oxygen called a white dwarf. The white dwarf is so hot that it shines very brightly in the ultraviolet. The ultraviolet light from the white dwarf, in turn, ionizes the gaseous material expelled by the star causing it to glow. A planetary nebula is really the death of a low-mass star.