I confess that I disagree. I think one of the strong points of the Celestial is the emphatic inclusion of Southern constellations. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to see references in so many books, websites and card decks ONLY to Northern constellations. I read a lot of books about stars and find it exasperating myself. Shouldn't Australians be able to use the same decks as we Northerners do?
From the UK, you see relatively few constellations because you're up North. You never the the complete Scorpio for example. Nevertheless, it's an important constellation and a zodiac sign. I can see Canopus, you can't, and I can never see the Cross of the South but Nisaba can. And isn't that wonderful? I'd love to go by ship to Australia and see Ursa Maior sink into the sea... and Polaris... and I love the idea of having a deck that relates to all points on earth.
We're on this Earth, and if there's one thing that's universal, it's the fact that we're small in comparison to the cosmos around us. And that's why I love to see all constellations considered because they're all there.
But I can understand it's frustrating, I'd love to see them all, all 88 of them, and seeing their pictures rubs it in. It took me some time to love the idea.
The Constellation tarot definitely uses constellations you don't see in the UK, like Horologium, Phoenix, Pavo and Centaur. Oh, but I checked, you can see Menkent, theta centauri, from the UK.
The Constellation deck uses actual constellations, stars and planets only in the majors, the minors are pip cards. I'll have to get the Celestial, too, because Kay Steventon uses constellations and stars for the minors, too.
The choices are a bit inconsistent. There are Northern constellations (Pegasus, Libra, Cetus, Capricornus), Southern constellations (as mentioned above), planets (Venus, Jupiter) and stars (Sirius, Polaris). There are also the Moon, Sun and Earth for their respective cards (Moon, Sun, World). Oh, and there's Halley's comet, too.
The creator of the deck doesn't really explain her choices. I'll have to study the deck a bit to find an opinion about her choices. She obviously thought about them a lot. And since there are 88 modern constellations, loads of planets and stars and comets, I can understand that the choice is difficult and personal.
I'd have preferred if there were celestial bodies on all the cards but I knew there are not, and thinking about it - the pip minors have their advantages, too. In too many decks, there is no real difference between minors and majors, and that waters down the archetypical power of the majors without really empowering the minors. Here, they are clearly different, and I like that.
I also work on my pip-reading skills, so I correct myself. I'm glad the deck is the way it is. It conveys beautifully the feelings when looking at the night sky, I like the technique (mix of water colours and wax pastels, I think), I even like the borders.