Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Melalui teleskop besar, saya melihat rasi bintang yang belum pernah saya kenal. - Through a large telescope, I see constellations that I have never known before.

Melalui literally means “through / via”. In this sentence it’s like saying “Through the big telescope, I saw …” — it emphasizes that your view passes through the telescope.

Melalui teleskop besar = through the big telescope (focus on the path/medium)
Dengan/pakai teleskop besar = with / using the big telescope (focus on the tool you used)

All three are grammatically fine, but:

melalui sounds a bit more formal and fits very well with the idea of looking through something
dengan/pakai are more general “using/with” and are very common in speech

Why is it teleskop besar and not besar teleskop?

In Indonesian, adjectives normally come after the noun:

teleskop besar = big telescope
bintang kecil = small star
rumah baru = new house

So teleskop (noun) comes first, besar (adjective) comes after it.
Besar teleskop would sound wrong here; that structure is not used for “big telescope.”

Is the comma after teleskop besar necessary? What does it do?

The comma marks a fronted phrase:

Melalui teleskop besar, = Through the big telescope, (setting the scene)
saya melihat rasi bintang … = the main action

This is like English:
“Through the big telescope, I saw a constellation …”

In Indonesian:

Putting a comma after a long phrase at the beginning of the sentence is good style, especially in written/ formal text.
In casual writing, some people might omit it, but with the comma is preferred here for clarity.

Can I also say Saya melihat rasi bintang … melalui teleskop besar? Is that still correct?

Yes, it’s correct:

Melalui teleskop besar, saya melihat rasi bintang …
Saya melihat rasi bintang … melalui teleskop besar.

Both are grammatical. The difference is emphasis/order of information:

Fronted: Melalui teleskop besar, … → emphasizes the way you observed (through the telescope).
Final: … melalui teleskop besar. → focuses first on what you saw, then adds how you saw it.

Meaning is essentially the same.

What exactly is rasi bintang? Can I say konstelasi instead?

Rasi bintang means constellation (a group/pattern of stars). Literally:

rasi = constellation
bintang = star
So rasi bintang ≈ “constellation of stars”.

You can also say konstelasi, which is a loanword from “constellation”:

rasi bintang – very common and natural in everyday Indonesian
konstelasi – understandable, a bit more technical or bookish

In this sentence, rasi bintang is the most natural choice.

What does yang do in rasi bintang yang belum pernah saya kenal?

Yang introduces a relative clause, like English “that / which / who”.

rasi bintang = constellation
yang belum pernah saya kenal = that I had never known before

So the structure is:

[rasi bintang] [yang belum pernah saya kenal]
= a constellation [that I had never known before]

Yang links rasi bintang to the description that follows.

What is the nuance of belum pernah here compared to just belum or tidak pernah?

The pieces:

belum = not yet
pernah = ever (at some time)

Together belum pernah is a very common pattern meaning:

“have never (up to now)”
e.g. Saya belum pernah ke Jepang. = I have never been to Japan (up to now).

In this sentence:

yang belum pernah saya kenal ≈ “that I had never known before / that I had never been familiar with”

Comparisons:

belum saya kenal – grammatical but sounds incomplete; usually you say belum pernah with experiences.
tidak pernah saya kenal – stronger, more absolute “never at all, at any time,” and can sound more emphatic or contrastive.
belum pernah is the most natural for life experience up to a certain point.

Why use kenal here instead of tahu? Aren’t both “to know”?

They overlap, but the nuance is different:

tahu = to know (a fact)
- Saya tahu namanya. = I know his/her name.
- Saya tahu jawabannya. = I know the answer.
kenal = to be acquainted with / be familiar with
- Saya kenal dia. = I know him/her (I am acquainted with this person).
- Saya tidak kenal tempat itu. = I’m not familiar with that place.

With rasi bintang (constellation), kenal suggests:

you are familiar with its pattern/name, or it’s a constellation you “know” as a recognizable thing.

So:

rasi bintang yang belum pernah saya kenal
= a constellation I had never been familiar with before / had never known as a recognizable constellation

You could say belum pernah saya tahu, but for things like people, places, and constellations, kenal is more idiomatic.

Where is the past tense in this sentence? How do we know it’s “I saw” and “had never known” rather than “I see / I never know”?

Indonesian does not mark tense with verb endings like English. There is one form for “see / saw / have seen”: melihat.

Time is understood from:

Context (narrative about last night, for example)
Time words (kemarin, tadi malam, besok, sudah, pernah, etc.)

Here:

pernah (ever) usually refers to past experience, and combined with belum gives the idea “have never (up to that time)”.
The natural English equivalent in a narrative is:
“Through the big telescope, I saw a constellation that I had never known before.”

So past-ness is implied, not grammatically marked.

Why is it belum pernah saya kenal and not saya belum pernah kenal?

Both word orders are technically possible, but they feel different:

yang belum pernah saya kenal – most natural here
- Adverbs (belum pernah) first
- Subject (saya) then
- Verb (kenal) last
- Very common pattern in relative clauses.
yang saya belum pernah kenal – also grammatical, but can sound slightly heavier or more marked, as if putting a bit more focus on saya in speech.

In neutral written Indonesian, yang belum pernah saya kenal is the default, smooth order.

Why don’t we say “a/the” before rasi bintang? How do articles work in Indonesian?

Indonesian has no mandatory articles like a/an/the.

rasi bintang by itself can mean:
- a constellation
- the constellation
- constellations (in some contexts)

The exact English article is chosen based on context, not on extra Indonesian words.

If you really want to make it clearly definite, you can add itu:

rasi bintang itu = that / the constellation

But in this sentence, plain rasi bintang is natural, and the translation “a constellation” is usually best.

Could I say yang belum pernah saya lihat instead of yang belum pernah saya kenal? Would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

rasi bintang yang belum pernah saya lihat
= a constellation that I had never seen before

Differences:

belum pernah saya kenal – focus on familiarity/recognition
- You didn’t “know” this constellation as something known to you (by shape, name, etc.).
belum pernah saya lihat – focus on visual experience
- You had never seen it, even once.

In context:

If you want to stress that this constellation was unknown/unfamiliar to you, kenal is better.
If you want to stress that this is your first time actually seeing it, lihat is better.