Urania’s Mirror

Constellation figures, as in this boxed set of 32 constellation cards, make learning the constellation names memorable.  Each card illustrates one or a few constellations. Holes punched in the positions of bright stars allow one to hold any card up to a light and compare the star pattern with the constellation figure.  Urania, the Muse of Astronomy, appears on the cover of the box.   

The 66 constellations include several no longer recognized today. 

This is the first edition; subsequent editions include stars outside the boundaries of the featured constellations.

The creator of the cards remains a mystery.  In a companion book providing a simple introduction to the night sky, Jehoshaphat Aspin explains only that the constellation cards “were designed by a lady.”  (Jehoshaphat Aspin, A Familiar Treatise on Astronomy (London 1825), 2d ed.)

The constellation figures are based upon the Celestial Atlas of Alexander Jamieson, published in 1822.