ARA’S DREAM. Acrylic on Canvas 12 x 12 x 1.5 in (30.5 x 30.5 x 1.8 cm) $500.00

This paitning of young open star cluster NGC 6193 (Caldwell 82); where stars give life to this nebula, illuminating its void with vibrant colors, can be a gentile remindr that our spirit can illuminate the world around us, breathing life into the darkness.

Image from Telescope in Chili ESO

NGC 6193 is a large open cluster that contains 27 stars, many of them binaries (two stars linked together for their lifespan), it is located in the Ara Constellation. Its estimated age is 3 million years.

There are several myths associated with the constellation. In one of them, Ara represents the altar on which Zeus and other gods vowed to defeat the Titans and overthrow Cronus, who ruled the universe. Cronus was one of the 12 Titans who had deposed his father Uranus, the previous ruler.

When a prophecy said that the same fate would befall Cronus and he would be defeated by one of his own children, to prevent it from happening, he swallowed all his children – Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon – all of them future gods and goddesses. When the youngest child, Zeus, was born, his mother Rhea hid him in Crete and gave Cronus a stone to swallow, telling him the stone was Zeus.

Galatic Location: Ara Constellation

Celestial Phenomenon: NGC 6193

Collection: 88 Constellations