FROM CHILDREN'S STORIES to modern science, people across the ages have explained and ordered the universe in visual forms in order to better comprehend it. From the earliest times until today humans have developed imaginative accounts of the workings of their village, their region, the earth and the vast universe. The earliest maps and images of the heavens represent attempts to order the vast spaces of the skies above. Horizontal bands, concentric circles, and other creative solutions have been used for many centuries and in many cultures to depict the celestial sphere. Stars are used to orient one in relation to other objects. Paths are found across the land, sea, or space by re-finding the place of the stars. Tracing patterns in the sky—to form bears, dippers, even Christian saints—gives a sense of the enormity of the universe while making that universe seem more like home.
