Hello, my name is Baylee Adair. I’m a freshman at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, but I’m originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is here in Bellingham that I am trying to pursue my love of astronomy and creative writing.

I got into astronomy in middle school after watching Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson. From there, I tried to learn everything I could about our universe, and even ended up working for the Mars Science Labratory for two years as a student researcher.

My love of all things space seeped into this project in a very evident way. I knew I wanted to write science fiction and poetry about discovery and space, but both topics were vague. I limited myself to one particular aspect of astronomy, one that most people are vaguely familiar with- constellations.

Constellations, at least, in concept, are pretty easy to understand- shapes and patterns we use to identify stars in the sky. But what people fail to realize is their scientific purpose and basis in mythology. Scientifically speaking, constellations break the sky into pieces and quadrants that allow us to quickly classify the location of a stellar object. On another hand, each constellation is given a name and a story befitting of their shape and position in the sky, and each night they play out their stories without our notice.

My goal in writing about constellations was to learn more about them while also engaging with their scientific and literary aspects. Out of 88 officially recognized constellations, I decided upon Scorpius, Orion, Cassiopeia, and Canis Major. All of them had a great deal of meaning and research to base my writing off of, and I was quick to decide on creative endeavours to best represent each constellation accurately.

The easiest piece to write was Cassiopeia, which took form in a poem. It was easy to write in an artistic way about a very easily identifiable constellation with a rather nasty story behind it. The hardest, on the other hand, was the podcast for Canis Major. It took a lot of time to research its stars, the location I wanted to focus on, and how we defined intelligent civilizations.

Despite my difficult time researching and trying to encapsulate each constellation, I had an extremely enjoyable time writing each one out. I think I was really excited at the opportunity to write about something I am passionate about in ways they aren’t usually viewed in. It gave me the opportunity to try out different formats for conveying information, as well as the chance to deepen my understanding of our celestial sphere.

I hope that my work allows people the chance to learn about constellations in a way they never thought of before.