My discovery for today consisted of stumbling upon the very appealing artwork of Abd-al-Rahman al-Sufi (December 7, 903 - May 25, 986 A.D.). The man was a great observational astronomer, and made the first recorded observation of the andromeda galaxy. The book I was browsing contained his splendid illustration of the constellation Perseus, a slender Greek hero brandishing a sword and displaying Medusa's onion-shaped head, which has a forked goatee, pigs' ears, fangs, and a moustache which looks stolen from an oriental villian in a Tintin comic. Alas, I am so far unable to find this image online. But here are two other delightful al-Sufi illustrations, of Sagittarius and Draco.

Anyone who has done research on the web is well aware that what one is seeking is seldom the only interesting thing one finds. And so it was today, when my trawling for Arabic star charts also netted one of the strangest theories I've ever seen, even on the internet. Mr. Allan Webber, of Adelaide, South Australia, seems to be claiming not only that Viking runes had a hidden astronomical significance, but also that the verses quoted in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda are thickly interwoven with astronomical references, thus creating a sort of Viking celestial map in verse. An interesting idea to say the least. I'll have to let the reader evaluate Mr. Webber's claims for himself, though I cannot resist offering the following quotation, indicative as it is of Mr. Webber's general means of argument:

The absence of evidence suggests that, given its importance, it was a hidden knowledge so highly revered it could not be made public.

Quite.