Constellations: Celestial Patterns and Their Significance, Slides of Earth science

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CONSTELLATIONS

ORBIT

STARS

CIRCUMPOLAR

NORT HEMISPHERE

SOUTH HEMISPHERE

These are group of stars forming a recognizable pattern that is traditionally named after its apparent form or identified with a mythological figure.

Modern astronomers divide the sky into 88 constellations with defined boundaries. The word constellation from the Latin word “con” means group and “stella” means stars.

Distant celestial bodies from Earth and Sun is the nearest star. Stars and constellations are visible depending on the location of an observer and the season in that place. Some stars and constellations are only visible at a specific month.

This is because Earth rotates on its axis, thus the stars appear to move across the night sky from east to west, and the sun seems to rise in the east and set in the west.

Polaris is the North star because it is located close to the north celestial pole. Stars that are around a celestial pole are called circumpolar stars forming recognizable patterns known as circumpolar constellations.

The circumpolar stars remain in the night sky and stay visible all year from the northern hemisphere. All stars observed from the equator are not circumpolar for it appears to rise in the east and set in the west.