Starship Asterisk*

David Bowie is dead. I'm sad.
Ann

Ah, I had no idea he had cancer. He will be missed.

In thinking about him this morning, I can only agree with the commentators that he was an extraordinarily influencial artist. I know many of his songs by heart -- which is odd, considering that in my many hundreds of albums, hundreds of CDs and now thousands of digital files, I own only one of his recordings, Under Pressure, with Bowie and Freddy Mercury and the rest of Queen. But that's one of my favourite songs of all time, so though he might be a little thin on the ground around here, he holds a place of honour.

Rob

I like this video a lot.

this song from the 80s is inspired by David Bowie and I like it too.

The movie Velvet Goldmine is inspired by David Bowie's career and I like it.

Thinking about him this morning led me to Starship Asterick*. First time visitor! I was looking for a good picture of Spica, and found this gem with Mars retrograde. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1208/Ma ... zel900.jpg

Have fun up there David, thanks for visiting us!

Planet Earth is blue

Looks like Bowie is the first person since antiquity to get some real estate in the sky after his own death. (Of course, there is that Cor Caroli star in Canes Venatici...)

Ann

That would be an asterism, not a constellation. Edit: okay, maybe an unofficial constellation, robbing sky area from a few official ones. Fairy nuff.

There are plenty of modern people officially commemorated on the Moon and other planets.

Pity it won't bring them back.

The "constellation" takes up a huge chunk of real estate in the sky (from Spica almost down to the SCP), is somewhat distorted when projected from a 2-D map onto a sphere, and straddles some much brighter stars in Centaurus and Crux: http://astroblogger.blogspot.com.au/201 ... on-in.html