title: A Walk through the Southern Sky: A Guide to Stars and Constellations and their Legends
author: Milton Heifetz
description: "This accessible book provides you with simple, straightforward maps of the southern sky constellations and the mythology of some of the more notable ones. It's a must if you're planning a trip to go observing Down Under." --BBC Sky at Night
zlib_text: 
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  # Prologue
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Leonardo's Journey
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  He was a stranger to these stars.
  
  
  
  
  
  Out here in the rain forest, hundreds of miles from any significant human
  light source, the night sky is filled with more stars than I've ever imagined.
  This far south there are stars and constellations that I've never seen before.
  Like that group of stars there, low on the northern horizon. It looks like a
  curving snake. Weird. I've been looking at this sky for nearly a month now… It
  almost seems as though the snake has been trying to straighten itself. Is that
  possible? I wish I knew more about astronomy, the way the universe is
  structured
  
  
  
  
  
  Leonardo shut his eyes and began to inhale and exhale slowly and deeply. It
  was time for his final meditation of the day. Time to banish ail thought, to
  ignore the physical reality that engulfed him — the sky, the tropical rain
  forest, the soft whisperings of passing bats, and his hammock, slung three
  hundred feet above the ground in the canop