Call of the sea constellation puzzle6/21/2023 The only Greek constellation that is no longer in use is Argo Navis. The line of fainter stars between the Big and Little Dippers outline the tail of Draco, and the relatively bright star located below Alkaid at the tip of the Big Dipper’s handle is Cor Caroli, the luminary of Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs). Arcturus sits at the base of an asterism known as the Kite, which lies between Corona Borealis (the Northern Crown, left) and the Big Dipper (right). The arc of the Big Dipper’s handle leads to the bright Arcturus in Boötes, appearing low above the horizon. The constellations Ursa Major an Ursa Minor are visible just right of centre. They include some of the best-known constellations in the sky: Orion, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Lyra, Cassiopeia, Perseus, Pegasus, Auriga, Hercules, Draco, and the constellations of the zodiac. In Roman times, the constellations were given Latin names.įifty of the modern 88 constellations are based on the 48 Greek constellations listed by Ptolemy. However, as these stars patterns were adopted by the Greeks, they were given new meanings and associated with figures from Greek mythology that we still know today. Their exact origins and myths associated with them are largely lost. The ancient constellations that served as the basis for most of the modern 88 constellations were created by Babylonian, Assyrian and Egyptian observers thousands of years ago. The largest constellation in the northern sky is Ursa Major, the Great Bear. Hydra is visible to observers in mid-northern latitudes and Crux is not due to its location in the far southern sky. The largest constellation in the sky, Hydra, stretches across 1302.844 square degrees of the sky while the smallest, Crux, occupies only 68.447 square degrees. The northern constellations are mostly based on Ptolemy’s 48 Greek constellations, while many of the southern ones that were invisible to the Greeks were not created until the 16th century.Ĭonstellations vary greatly by size. Thirty-six lie predominantly in the northern sky and 52 are found in the southern celestial hemisphere. There are 88 constellations in the sky officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union. They are based on the ancient constellations catalogued by the Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy in his Almagest in the 2nd century CE, as well as on the constellations created by European astronomers and cartographers since the Age of Discovery. The modern constellations and their boundaries were defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in the 1920s. Constellations are named areas of the celestial sphere that are used to divide the night sky into specific regions for easy reference.
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