Sunday, September 7th, 2008

SPACE

ConstellationsPart I

Constellations

There are many different constellations in the night sky.

A constellation is a group of stars that forms a shape or a picture.

E.g. The Big Dipper Also known as Ursa

Major (the Big Bear in Latin)

Looking at the stars, you could make any picture you want by connecting the dots.

The Eraser

But the one that everyone ended up agreeing on (for this set of stars) is:

Polaris – the North Star

The Big DipperUrsa Major

The Little DipperUrsa Minor

“The Pointers” – point to…

Can you find the big and little dipper?

Different cultures around the world looked at the stars and imagined they saw shapes and figures and made up stories to go along with them.

The Greeks made up many of the constellations we use today

For example, Orion. What do you think this

looks like?

The Greek story of this constellation has Orion (The Hunter),

battling a Bull (Taurus)

in order to rescue Seven Sisters (Pleiades – a tight cluster of 7stars)

The Bull’s Horns - Taurus

O

Can you see them?

Other cultures saw different shapes and patterns using the same stars.

For example the Aborigines in Australia looked at the same group of stars that the Greeks called Orion and saw this instead.

In the Australian legend, Orion is seen as a canoe bearing three brothers who were banished to the sky for illegally eating a forbidden fish.

Other Aboriginal Constellations include the Kangaroo…

…and the Emu

The Micmac and the Maliseet also had their own constellations.

They even used the same big dipper constellation that we use today.

Even more remarkable, they also called it “The Great Bear”. In their language it was known as “Mooin”.

Assignment

Make your own constellation!