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May 6, 2024 · Constellations were named after objects, animals, and people long ago. Astronomers today still use constellations to name stars and meteor showers. There are a few different definitions of constellations, but many people think of constellations as a group of stars. Often, it's a group of stars that looks like a particular shape in the sky and ...
May 13, 2024 · constellation, in astronomy, any of certain groupings of stars that were imagined—at least by those who named them—to form conspicuous configurations of objects or creatures in the sky. Constellations are useful in assisting astronomers and navigators to locate certain stars. From the earliest times the star groups known as constellations ...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Nov 16, 2023 · Winter constellations. To see the constellations that come and go with the seasons, we need to turn our backs on the north circumpolar constellations and face south. If the winter sky seems alive ...
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a ... Greek astronomy essentially adopted the older Babylonian system in ...
Jul 17, 2014 · The Big Dipper asterism in the constellation Ursa Major. Starry Night Software / A.Fazekas. Asterisms are recognizable patterns of stars that are not officially designated constellations. An asterism might form part of an official constellation, like the Big Dipper, which is composed of the seven brightest stars in the constellation Ursa Major.
Nov 14, 2019 · A constellation is a name given to a group of stars in the sky that make up a certain pattern. Sometimes this pattern is imaginary. When the sky is clear these stars can be seen from Earth without the use of a telescope. There are 88 named constellations, and they take many forms, including mythological creatures, animals, people and objects.
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Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the constellation as “a group of stars that forms a particular shape in the sky and has been given a name” or “any of 88 arbitrary configurations of stars or an area of the celestial sphere covering any of these configurations.”. Britannica defines the term, as used in astronomy, as “any of certain ...
