Description
As astronomers, we observe a sky beyond what our eyes can see - but what if we could see what our telescopes can? The starry heavens - familiar to our species for millennia - would look so different to eyes that could see the radio flashes of neutron stars, or the microwave hum of the cosmic microwave background.
And that begs the question - if our ancestors were to look to the sky on a cool savannah night, with eyes that saw beyond the optical spectrum, what great creatures would we have drawn in the heavens?
We present the X-ray Zodiac, a re-imagining of the twelve traditional signs as they could have been perceived with X-ray eyes. The project aims to teach the public about new ways to see the universe, and to engender the same creativity and imagination of the first of our species. We also show that the X-ray sky is more exotic than the one we know; I show how the brilliant Crab Pulsar, a host of Seyfert 1 galaxies, and even Sagittarius A* burn brighter than even our nearest stars. And finally I ask - what can you see in your sky?
