Credit: Art Resource, Musee de la Tapisserie, Bayeux, France

Halley's Comet in the Bayeux Tapestry This section of the Bayeux Tapestry depicts the appearance of Halley's Comet in 1066, which at the time was taken as an omen that King Harold would lose the Battle of Hastings to William the Conqueror. This section of the tapestry is one of the earliest examples of Western space art.

Astronomy in the Arts

(Links | Questions)

Astronomy, amongst all the sciences, is unusual in it's ability to inspire. Through the ages, and in almost every culture on Earth objects in the sky have been the subject of countless drawings, poems and pieces of music. This page is devoted to all forms of Art which are inspired by or include references to Astronomy.

Poetry

Many thanks to a "Curious" reader whose question on the link between astronomy and poetry sparked this addition to the "Curious" site. There are many poems including references to astronomy. A selection are included here:

Dachshunds, by William Jay Smith.
Mother Goose's Garland, by Archibald MacLeish
Escape At Bedtime, by Robert Louis Stevenson
Reason Has Moons, by Ralph Hodgeson
The Rabbits' Song Outside The Tavern, by Elizabeth Coatsworth

(Note: I have not checked if there is a copyright remaining on these poems. If the inclusion of a poem infringes on your copyright please email us and we will gladly take it down. As astronomy grad students we probably have less money than most poets so there's really no point in sueing us).

There are already a lot of good sites on the web which discuss the topic of Astronomy in the Arts, so we will not repeat them here, but instead provide a large number of links below.

The Ask an Astronomer team's favorite links about Astronomy in the Arts:

General sites

Art and Astronomy from The Art Institute of Chicago

Galleries

Lynette Cook's Space Art: see the work of one of today's best known space artists.
NovaSpace: claims to be the largest on-line gallery of Space Art.

Written works

Astronomy Related Poetry : from the Baltimore Astronomy Society.

Cinema

Astronomy in Movies: Accurate information and misleading science in Hollywood.

Previously asked questions about Astronomy in the Arts:

How do I become an astronomical artist? (Intermediate)
How are astronomy and poetry linked? (Intermediate)
Why do people draw stars with five points? (Intermediate)
When can I see the Moon through the hole in the Pantheon? (Intermediate)

How to ask a question:

If you have a question about Astronomy in the Arts which isn't answered above, submit it here. If you have a question about another area of astronomy, find the topic you're interested in from the archive on our site menu, or go here for help.

URL: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/astroart.php
This page has been accessed 50829 times since February 14, 2004.
Last modified: December 19, 2011 10:27:43 PM

Legal questions? See our copyright, disclaimer and privacy policy.
Ask an Astronomer is hosted by the Astronomy Department at Cornell University and is produced with PHP and MySQL.