Star Tours #4: The Dark Llamas

The Inca people saw stories not only in the stars themselves, but in the dark spaces between them. While many cultures around the world mapped constellations from clusters of bright stars, the Inca looked at the Milky Way and saw animal shapes formed by the absence of light—what astronomers now call dark constellations. One of the most important of these was the llama, whose outline appears in the dark patches of the Milky Way near the stars Alpha and Beta Centauri, which form the adult llama's eyes. A baby llama accompanies her, becoming more visible over Cusco in November, though from a Star Tours ship you can see them any time of year.

The Inca and the Night Sky

The Inca people lacked telescopes and modern instruments, but they built temples and observatories that told millions of people when to harvest and plant crops using only the sun and stars. The Milky Way held special significance: they saw it as a river that began in the Vilcanoto River in Peru's Sacred Valley and ran all the way from Earth to the realm of immortals in the night sky. Each dark constellation had a role and story in Inca mythology, and the llamas were believed to look out for the llamas on earth—and, according to legend, for the Inca people themselves.