Kenneth Johnson wrote:Sorry I cannot imitate Martin's style by using a font with the proper transliteration, but just a remark...

I have never been comfortable with the translation "heap" for rasi, as it sounds a bit pejorative. Apte's Sanskrit Dictionary also gives "a collection" or a "quantity of something" as primary translations for rasi. Interestingly enough, the dictionary also notes that rasi may refer to a mathematical operation, so there may be a sense here of something that is defined (or divided?)mathematically (perhaps by degrees?). It could mean a quantity or collection of stars which is defined by the mathematical division of the sky into degrees.