Cancer Constellation Stars
Albumasar writes of this sign in Flowers of Abu Ma’shar. A 1488 Latin translation depicts cancer as a big crayfish, which also is the constellation’s name in most Germanic languages. Jakob Bartsch and Stanislaus Lubienitzki, in the 17th century, described it as a lobster. To the unaided eye it looks like a compact, fuzzy patch of light — like a tiny...