important special star names...

stellar found poetry in a small pamphlet published by the adler planetarium chicago in 1942 on the preferred spellings and pronunciations of constellations, clusters, and my favorite - the fifty important special star names.

the blue mimeograph color reminds me of grammar school newspapers, and the graphic design done on a typewriter is all the work of human hand made ingenuity... i strongly encourage clicking on the images to see them bigger.

there is a beauty here that is part concrete poetry, part henri chopin typewriter poem, and part the indeterminacy of jackson maclow...

did you know mirfak's equivalent is persei?

there's a "key to pronunciations", which explains how to speak the words through a list that runs from "a as in ale, fate, maker, profane" to "u as in burn, hurl, hurt, urge, urn". the booklet begs to be spoken out loud; and with no other explanatory information, all one can do is read and revel in the beautiful sounds of the words... pronounced as they ought to be!