Constellations



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Largely on the basis of Greek astronomy, the sky is divided somewhat arbitrarily into sections called constellations. Greek mythological characters dominate the original names, which were given to conspicuous arrangements of stars that roughly outline the fanciful figure named. For example, when looking at a particular apparent group of stars visible in the evening sky during the spring, the Greeks imagined the figure of a lion and named the grouping Leo. Of the 88 currently recognized constellations, 48 have come from the listing of the ancient astronomer PTOLEMY. The remainder were added by subsequent astronomers to fill in the areas
omitted by the Greeks, especially those in the southern part of the celestial sphere.

Constellations generally do not involve physically related groups of stars, but are merely apparent patterns in the sky made by stars at vastly different true distances from the Earth. In modern astronomy constellations are a convenient method of describing different directions in the sky. The sky is completely divided into constellations, and their borders are similar to the political borders of states or counties rather than to physical boundaries of any significance.

The constellations may be divided into three groups: (1) the equatorial constellations that lie on either side of the celestial equator, which is the projection onto the sky of the Earth's equator; (2) the north circumpolar constellations, which never set for observers at northern mid-latitudes; and (3) the south circumpolar constellations, which also are always present in the sky from southern terrestrial latitudes. The ZODIAC, widely used in ASTROLOGY, consists of 12 constellations through which the Sun appears to move because of the Earth's yearly orbital motion.

Ursa Major, part of which is commonly called the BIG DIPPER, is a well-known northern constellation; for most of North America and Europe it is circumpolar. Named the "big bear" by the Greeks, it is a handy nighttime measure of season and time because it is high in the sky on summer evenings and low near the northern horizon on winter evenings. The two stars forming the lip of the Big Dipper point to the pole star, POLARIS, which lies at the end of the Little Dipper's handle. The LITTLE DIPPER, in turn, is the end of the tail of the Greeks "little bear," or Ursa Minor.

A conspicuous star grouping in the sky is the large equatorial constellation ORION, named by the Greeks for the great hunter. Consisting primarily of a near rectangle of bright stars, Orion is visible during the Northern Hemisphere's winter and the Southern Hemisphere's summer. Three bright stars in the middle outline Orion's belt, and three fainter stars (the middle one actually a nebula) delineate his sword. Opposite Orion is another well-known constellation visible in the summer sky from northern latitudes--CYGNUS, the swan, also known as the Northern Cross, which lies across a bright part of the Milky Way.





The following was copied directly for a Grollier Encyclopedia dealing with the subject of "Constellations" It's by no means the purpose of the author of this web page to misrepresent them or take credit for their work.
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