Legends about constellation and galaxies.
eTwinklingStars: shining together. eTwinning project. 

eTwinkling legends

Budapest II. Kerületi II. Rákóczi Ferenc Gimnázium

SUGS Gimnazija Josip Broz Tito

CEIP Ciudad de Ceuta IES Vega de Atarfe, Granada

Stars pattern

Göncöl szekér It is not an official constellation but part of the Big Bear constellation. The chariot itself forms the back of the bear, the few faintly shining stars below it are the legs of the animal, while the triangle behind the chariot is the head - and the rod of the Dipper is the sloppy tail of the bear.

There are several legends about the person of Göncöl. According to the beliefs of the conquering nomadic Hungarians, Göncöl was a famous "táltos", a miracle worker, a demigod who healed everyone with the medicines in his chariot, knew the secret and hidden things, could talk to the trees and the birds. Once his rod was broken. He begged the people to help, but they sadly let him down, no one helped him.

So Göncöl angrily slammed into the horses and flew into the sky on the chariot. Since then, he has been circling around the Polar Star in his chariot with broken rod. Others say the gods placed the broken-rod Dipper cart in the sky as an eternal reminder.

By IES Vega de Atarfe (SPAIN)

By Budapest II. Kerületi II. Rákóczi Ferenc Gimnázium (HUNGARY)

The constellation eTwinkling was discovered by a group of students who wanted to be astronomers following the example of other astronomers. During the day, they decided to look up at the sky and observe the stars and constellations. Suddenly, looking up closely at the sky, they discovered a group of five stars that shone much brighter than the others. They have a strange shape, and when they looked at them, unforgettable moments came to mind.

They couldn't believe that they could witness this unbelievably stunning natural phenomenon. Suddenly all of them had flashbacks of their best memories. Among their memories they could see an event which happened millions of years ago, a star falling down from the sky into the darkness. They knew they had to go and search for the lost star.&nbsp;&nbsp;

By Budapest II. Kerületi II. Rákóczi Ferenc Gimnázium

Juno was even angrier with Jupiter and managed to exact still more revenge on poor Callisto and Arcas. She went to the gods of the sea and forbade them to let the two bears wade in their water or streams on their long and endless journey around the pole star.

Callisto's son, called Arcas, was adopted and grew up to be a hunter, while Callisto continued to live in the forest. One day Callisto saw Arcas and was so overjoyed at seeing her son that she rushed up to him, forgetting she was a bear. Arcas thought he was being attacked and shot an arrow at Callisto.

Jupiter saw the arrow and stopped it from hitting Callisto. To save Callisto and her son from further damage from Juno, Jupiter changed Arcas into a bear also, grabbed them both by their tails, and swung them both into the heavens so they could live peacefully among the stars. The strength of the throw caused the short stubby tails of the bears to become elongated.

The stretch of water between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean is known as the Strait of Gibraltar, separating Spain and Gibraltar from north Africa (Morocco). Ceuta is situated in the North of Africa.

Hera was jealous of Hercules and to harm him, he drove Hercules insane to murder his wife, children, and nephews. Hercules asked the Oracle of Delphi for help and the Oracle told him that to purify himself, he should be at the service of the King of Tiryns, Eurystheus, for twelve years. So, Eurystheus ordered Hercules twelve labors. Each of these tasks had to be performed in an increasingly remote location. When he finished the tenth work, Hercules used his superhuman strength to push the two continets, Europe and Africa, to connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and formed the Strait of Gibraltar. In this way he could demostrate that he had been to the end of the world.

HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY: THE PILLARS OF HERCULES.

The "Stelae of Heracles" called by the Greeks and the "pillars of Hercules" called by Romans.

Picture of the biggest statue in the world of the pillars of Hercules which is 7 metres hight and it weighs 4 tons. It is situated in Ceuta and it was made by the sculptor Ginés Serrán Pagán who is from Ceuta.

Hercules looking at the Rock of Gibraltar. 

The pillars of Hercules referred to Mount Hacho in Ceuta, Africa, and the rock of Gibraltar, Europe, which were considered to be the end of the known world because they marked the boundary of the Meditarranean Sea basin. Hercules is Zeus and Alcmene' son and Perseo's great grandsond. He was considered a Hero and he didn't reach the category of a god.

The Pillars appear as supporters of the coat of arms of Spain.

Orion went off and got drunk. That night he burst into Mephrope's room. Come to the temple of Aphrodite and marry me," he shouted. Mephrope screamed for help, Enopion hurriedly sent a group of satyrs to give Orion even more wine. Orion drank too much and fell senseless to the ground. Then Enopion crept up and gouged out his eyes. He had to travel East until the Sun took pity on Orion and restored his sight.&nbsp; When Orion returned to Chios to take revenge and in Crete he met Artemis, who proposed to go hunting together to see who could hunt the most wild goats. "I cannot compare myself with a goddess like you - Orion answered politely, but I would love to watch you hunt”.

The god Apollo, brother of Artemis, heard of this appointment and murmured, "I fear she has fallen in love with this mortal. I must prevent it”. So he warned Gaea, the Earth, that Orion intended to go on killing a multitude of animals, and she sent a giant scorpion, bigger than an elephant, to attack Orion. Orion threw against the scorpion, filling it with arrows, and then used the sword, but, unable to kill the monster, he threw himself headlong into the sea and swam away.&nbsp;

Part of Ursa Major Göncöl szekér

It was recognized by astronomers thousands of years ago, and ancient civilizations featured it in their mythologies.&nbsp; According to Greek and Roman mythology, Milky Way was created by Heracles (Roman Hercules) when he was a baby. He was the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene. His father decided to let the infant Heracles suckle on his divine wife Hera's milk when she was asleep to endow the baby with godlike qualities. When Hera woke and realized that she was breastfeeding an unknown infant, she pushed him away and the spurting milk spread in the sky became the Milky Way.

The Greek myth about the Milky Way's formation was immortalized by Renaissance artist Jacopo Tintoretto in the painting "The Origin of the Milky Way," around 1575. The painting is displayed in the National Gallery.

With the help of all the gifts, Perseus flew to the home of the other gorgons by the Ocean. Using his shield as a mirror so that he would not have to look directly at Medusa and prevent her from turning him to stone, he cut off the snake-filled head of the monster with the sabre of Hermes and placed it in the sack. The blood shed by Medusa gave rise to the winged horse Pegasus.

On his way back he met the titan Atlas. Perseus was not well received because an oracle had told Atlas that a son of Zeus would steal the apples from the garden of the Hesperides, golden apples that provided immortality. Perseus showed him the head of Medusa and turned it into stone, thus becoming the mountain range we know by that name. Perseus continued his journey westward through Africa and arrived in Ethiopia, where he saw a beautiful girl chained to a rock by the sea. She was Andromeda, the daughter of King Cepheus, who was about to be sacrificed to a sea monster as a conciliatory act for the arrogant words of her mother Cassiopeia, who had said that her daughter was more beautiful than the nereids, the 50 nymphs of the Mediterranean Sea. 

Once upon a time there was a little boy, whose roots were deep in Portugal, back in 1490, between Vila nova de Gaia and Ponte da Barca. This little boy was called Ferdinand Magellan and loved to hear stories where a sailor was the protagonist because they made him imagine himself on a ship sailing to other lands. He also loved the stars and the sky was the map in his dreams. When he grew up he did what he had dreamed of and studied cartography and nautical navigation in Lisbon and as any pirate needs a lady to marry, he did it with Beatriz Barbosa. When his chance came he embarked on a journey where he would not have a return ticket. It was a very hard journey. His goal was to go around the world leading the Spanish expedition to the East Indies&nbsp;across the Pacific Ocean to open a maritime trade route.

During it, he discovered the interoceanic passage bearing his name&nbsp;and achieved the first European navigation from the Atlantic to Asia. When they were halfway he and Sebastian the Cano talked about that they had no provisions left and should stop in the Philippines. This was the end of Magellan. When he got off the ship, he had a confrontation with the Indians and was mortally wounded. Then, in his honour, was named the constellation of Large Magellanic Cloud as he was the first European to observe these two galaxies.

There are at least three ways of telling the myth, involving different situations, characters and outcomes. This is based on how Robert Graves tells it.

Orion of Boeotia, the most handsome and intelligent of all the hunters of those times, boasted of being able to kill all the beasts of the Earth. He was the son of the god of the sea, Poseidon, and Euryale, a sister of Medusa. He fell in love with Mephrope, daughter of Enopion, king of Chios, who didn’t want him to marry his daughter and told that he would marry her if he promised to kill all the wild animals on his island. When he left the island free of every wild animal bigger than a mouse or a weasel, he knocked at Enopion's door and said: "I have already done what you asked me to do, now let me marry your daughter".&nbsp; "No, sir, replied Enopion. This morning at dawn I heard the wolves howl, the bears and lions roar, the foxes bark and the wild cats meow. You have a long way to go to finish your task".

The Wandering Star: a book of eTwinkling legends

Seeing Artemis, who had just arrived with her bow and arrows, Apollo said to her: -"Do you see that black thing rising and falling in the water, far from the shore? It is the head of a scoundrel named Candaon," said Apollo. He has insulted one of your priestesses. Kill him!" Artemis believed Apollo, took careful aim and fired. When she discovered that she had killed Orion, saddened and grieved, asked Zeus to turn him into a constellation.

So he did, and since then he shines in the sky, accompanied by his two dogs of prey (canis minor and canis major), by different animals and, always, escaping from a large scorpion. When we see Orion in the sky, in winter, we do not see Scorpio; and when Scorpio comes out, Orion hides in the sky, as if he were permanently running away from him.

As it is well known, no invention comes easily. It takes a lot of experimentation, observation and travelling. The students knew that they had to properly measure the fall and the arch along which the star was moving during that unforgettable moment. No one knew if the lost star would really be found, but everyone knew that if they lost it for real, the discovery would not be complete. Then the memories of millions of years old will be gone. And they began to search and move where the calculations said the star had fallen. They searched for a month. During the search they had a close encounter with a few wild animals, seeing as they were in the forest. They saw a bear and named her Callipso, a deer and a wolf. They also became very close friends with one another, having lots of fun, and watching the stars until late at night.

Just at that moment they heard a huge bang and ran in search of it. At the foot of the mountain, surrounded by trees, they found something they would never have thought, it was a starship! As they got closer, the whining of something got louder, when they reached it they saw something like a small animal, with unique features. His leg was bleeding so they looked for a first aid kit inside the starship and helped that little creature. They began to try to communicate with it and managed to begin to understand its language. That creature pointed his finger towards the five bright stars and uttered a name they could clearly understand, "eTwinnkling."

By SUGS Gimnazija Josip Broz Tito

Göncöl is also identified with the Old God of the Hungarians. He is the only Hungarian demigod, perhaps the the much-mentioned God of Hungarians, the stargod of the Hungarians, who rumbles along the Way of the Wars on the Milky Way with his lightning carriage. There is another legend that the chariot belongs to St. Peter. He went there to steal hay, but the guardian of fields (Vega) noticed and did not want to let him go. Peter managed to drive away, but in the meantime he scattered the hay. Since then, his Highway (Milky Way) can be seen in the sky. The most beautiful scenery among the galaxies in the Ursa Major is provided by the M101, or the Windmill Galaxy.

Perseus was the son of Zeus and the mortal Danae. Danae's father had locked her in a bronze tower to prevent her from conceiving a son, as an oracle had assured him that his grandson would kill him. Zeus, who was in love with Danae because of her beauty, visited her in the form of a shower of gold, from which Perseus was born. Acrisius, surprised, locked the mother and son in a box and threw them into the sea, but thanks to the protection of Zeus, the box arrived safely on the island of Seriphos, where Danae and her son were welcomed by the king. Polydectes fell in love with Danae and decided to get rid of the boy. For that reason he commissioned him to bring him the head of the Gorgon Medusa, something impossible given the appearance of the monster, which turned to stone anyone who dared to look at it.

Fortunately, Perseus had the help of Athena, who was at odds with Medusa. The goddess gave Perseus a bronze mirror that reflected everything he saw and told him what he had to do. First he should visit the Gorgons, three sisters who lived in North Africa, witches who shared only one eye. Perseus stole their eye and forced them to show him the way to Medusa in exchange for the eye. Some nymphs gave Perseus a helmet that made him invisible, a pair of winged sandals and a sack in which to put Medusa's head when he had caught her, and Hermes, the messenger of Zeus, gave him a magic sabre.

The Vera Rubin galaxy is named after the American astrologer Vera Florence Cooper Rubin. She was born on July 3, 1928 in Philadelphia, United States. Coming from Jewish parents. She earned her bachelor's degree from Vassar College of astronomy, later studying physics at Cornell University.&nbsp;&nbsp;

With her research, she managed to convince the scientific community of the existence of dark matter, considered a scientific milestone and one of the great persistent mysteries of the universe. She was also a pioneer in measuring the rotation of stars within a galaxy. Her measurements showed that the galactic rotation curves remained flat, contradicting the theoretical model. In general, her work was a precursor in the study of the rotation of spiral galaxies. However, despite being one of the most influential astronomers of her time and the revolutionary nature of her discoveries, Vera Rubin was not awarded the Nobel Prize or received the same recognition in her lifetime as some of her peers. She became a symbol of women's struggle to have their rightful place in contemporary science.&nbsp;

Even the ancient Egyptians imagined a chariot in the seven stars of the Ursa Minor, with the relatively bright Polar Star (as well as α Ursa Minoris) at the end of its rod. The other components of the constellation are rather dim, with no more than two rear stars of the dipper visible to the naked eye near city lights. Due to the privileged position of the Polar Star, it still makes the constellation a regular object in the recordings of amateur astronomers. This is because in the case of long exposure times, the stars draw long circles in the images according to their apparent motion - with the exception of the Polar Star sitting in the center.

By CEIP Ciudad de Ceuta (SPAIN)

By SUGS Gimnazija Josip Broz Tito (NORTH MACEDONIA)

Legend has it that every atom in our body was once part of a star. All the stars are part of the same universe and we are all part of it. At night, gazing at the celestial vault everyone wonders, what are stars made of? Will the stories we are told be true? Why are they named like that? what if one night they couldn't be seen...? Starlight is magic. Every civilization gives a reason for the stars bright above, many times as mortals, gods or godesses...

It was a time, in 2022, when schools from three countries (Spain, Hungary and North Macedonia) agreed to work together. They had never met before but felt it was the time to make joint effort to protect their home, the Earth and its environment, the universe and the night sky. We can only love what we know so, would you ride with us in our walk accross the sky ?

Perseus saw the terrible monster Cetus appear from the depths of the sea to devour Andromeda and told her desperate parents that he would save her if they promised to make her his wife. Cepheus and Cassiopeia readily agreed and even offered her the kingdom as a dowry. And so it was, Perseus killed the monster and back in Argos, ascended to the throne and there he stayed to live happily with Andromeda and her seven children. After his death, the one who had been his great protector, Athena, raised him to the heavens and turned him into a constellation. Andromeda and her parents received the same honour.

A Roman myth involves both bears, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

According to this myth a beautiful maiden, Callisto, hunting in the forest, grew tired and laid down to rest. The god Jupiter noticed her and was smitten with her beauty. Jupiter's wife, Juno, became extremely jealous of Callisto. Some time later, Juno discovered that Callisto had given birth to a son and decided that Jupiter must have been the father. To punish her, Juno changed Callisto into a bear so she would no longer be beautiful.

Clouds pattern

Andromeda &amp; Perseus Orion Nebula Milky Way Galaxy Magellan Vera Rubin Galaxy The Pillars of Hercules Ursa Major Part of Ursa Major - Göncöl Szekér The eTwinkling Gallaxy

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