Throughout the movie Contact, there appears to be a constellation in the grains of sand when Ellie and her father pick up a handful of sand. I believe it shows up at other times in the film as well. Does any know what it is? I heard is was a “C” for Carl Sagan, the author of the book the movie was based on. Is that true?
There are actually several different images of constellations that appear in Contact at various different times. The most prominent are the constellation Lyra, which contains the star Vega from which the alien signal emanates, the constellation of The Plough (Big Dipper) and the constellation of Corona Boreallis.
Taken together they appear to be a metaphor for Ellis's search for meaning and contact throughout her life.
The flashback scene during which a young Ellie and her father are watching the Persied Meteor shower which is associated with the Plough (Big Dipper) is one of the most significant. When Ellie's father collapses the shape of the Plough can be sceen in spilled popcorn on the floor. In the DVD comentary track Jodie Foster makes a passing reference to it but I no longer have that disc so cannot add more detail.
The computer screens in the VLA controlled room for obvious reasons show many images of Lyra which contains Vega.
It has often been said on various internet pages -for example https://www.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/comments/skaux/hidden_message_in_contact_1997_movie/ - that the constellation Corona Borealis was Carl Sagans favourite constellation because of its apparent resemblance to the shape of a radio telescope. I cannot find a direct quote but this is repeated in many different places on the web. It certainly is the constellation that appears in sand in Ellie's fathers hand.
It's likely significance is that it acts as a metaphor for Ellie's search for meaning and contact in her life, even as an invitation to keep exploring, as in "take my hand I will help you on your way" which is what the aliens are trying to do.
Taken as a whole, starting with the meteor scene and the plough, she is lost, searching for meaning missing the contact with her father, then receiving the message from Vega in the constellation of Lyra she has a direction in which to seach, which finally leads her to going on the mission in the machine and encountering the apparition of her father who by showing her the grains of sand in his hand suggests a direction in which to keep looking and at the same time offering her the contact with her feelings and ambitions that she has been searching for all along.
All of that said exactly how you interpret the metaphor of the constellations will always be a little bit dependant on the viewer.
You can see a star map showing both Lyra and Corona Borealis here...
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/hercules-constellation/
While making a video about this topic, I reached out to the people at CarlSagan.com. They dispelled the myth about Sagan's favorite constellation.
Carl Sagan did not have a favorite constellation. So it was not the Coronae Borealis. The meaning for C-shaped symbol in the movie Contact almost definitely had nothing to do with this internet myth about Carl Sagan.
Other clues. being passionate about astronomy, when I saw contact at the cinema, I immediately noticed the astronomical references, including the constellation of the corona borealis in the grains of sand in the hand of Elli's father, but not only in the father's hand, but also in the sky before returning on the ground where the meteoric radiant originates. Furthermore, at the end of the film, when she is sitting in the desert, she picks up some sand herself where she glimpses yet another flare, a form different from the Corona borealis. The question comes naturally, is it the same constellation seen from a different perspective? or how do aliens see it? i.e. an indication where to look for them? Or could it be the constellation seen from the ground in different times, past or future? are they communicating to us from different eras? if this were to be the case, by showing us the modified constellation we should understand in what era.
