Talk:Indus (constellation)

Which "Indian"?

The article currently says that the constellation represents an American Indian (a.k.a. Native American). Presumably this comes from the cited source. But one of the external-link pages says it isn't known whether that's true or whether it's a person from India. I have no idea which source is more reliable on this, but in cases where one source says "not known" and another asserts a plausible claim as truth, it seems depressingly common that "not known" is correct.

Since Indus is "the Indian", I was about to link to this article from the Indian disambiguation page, but now I don't know whether to put it in the "American Indian" section or in a new section about things where it is not clear what the referent is!

--207.176.159.90 (talk) 02:42, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I've made the description more general, to accord with what's said in the references. Whoever wrote the original did not give a reference but presumably took the word of R. H. Allen's Star Names. That book is also presumably the source of the name 'The Persian' for the star Alpha Indi, which has never been widely used by astronomers. Skeptic2 (talk) 11:02, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I was concerned that it might mean Indians from India, as I indicated above. But if you look carefully at the original page from Uranometria, you can see where it mentions "Americo Vesputio", i.e. Amerigo Vespucci, so that covers that. I've made that change to the Indian page now. --207.176.159.90 (talk) 00:28, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Bayer mentions three early European observers (Vespucci, Andrea Coralius, Petrus Medinensi) and his contemporary, Petrus Theodori (Pieter Keyser). We know Vespucci observed the southern sky, but no record survives of his introducing this constellation. The constellation Indus first appeared on Plancius's globe, using observations of Keyser and de Houtman -- and the latter traveled to the East Indies. So again, the Indian intended is not clear. -- Elphion (talk) 13:42, 18 May 2022 (UTC)

Who created it?

AstroLynx (talk · contribs) asks "if Plancius did not create it, then who did?". The answer, obviously, is Keyser and de Houtman. Modern sources are divided in assigning credit. -- Elphion (talk) 12:44, 18 May 2022 (UTC)

We had this discussion some years ago, I remember, and it is true that the sources are divided. It would perhaps be useful to inventorize (but not on this talk page) which RSS assign Indus (and the other 'Plancius' constellations) to Plancius alone, Keyser and de Houtman or all three together. AstroLynx (talk) 11:36, 19 May 2022 (UTC)