STARTLING STARS
Even though constellations are groups of
stars, there are only 88 official constellations, • Alcor and Mizar (very close, it was an
archery eye test to find Alcor)
the rest are called asterisms. • Dubhe and Merak (Pointer stars in Ursa
Major, commonly used for navigation)
All official constellations have something in Ursa Major is visible all the time and is called
a circumpolar constellation. To find the north
common, there are myths behind them, these
myths are well known (at least a few of them). you have to find the north star. To do so, both
You might want to know a few: Dubhe and Merak both point to Polaris, also
• Taurus is a bull that is fighting Orion
• Scorpius was put into the sky by Zeus to known as the North Star.
punish Orion the hunter
• Pegasus was put into the sky by Zeus
It is really fun to learn myths, but even more Now that you know how to find the north,
how about finding the south? To do so, simply
fun to learn myths about stars. southern crux, which looks like a sword, and
look between the constellation called the
the star Achernar. In the middle is the
Star and Constellation
Navigation
midpoint, which is the south. No more money
wasted on a GPS.
Zodiacs
Now that you know what Stars and
Constellations are, you can use them to find
the direction you are facing. To start off, you
should know some of the stars in Ursa Major
because it is used often to find other stars:
• Alkaid
Orion, the constellation.
"Orion Constellation Rising (With Lines)" by Piper2000ca is licensed under
CC BY-SA 2.0
Now that you are an expert on stars,
constellations, and how to find them, there is
one category you need to know about,
zodiacs.
Picture of Ursa Major. Dubhe and Merak
are on the far right.
"" by Jeffrey P. Horne is licensed under CC BY 2.0