This is a picture of what ancient people thought the constellation Leo
looked like.
Click on image for full size
Image: (c)1995 Visual Language, All Rights Reserved
Constellations
Constellations are formed of bright
stars which appear close to each other on the sky, but are really far apart in space. The shapes you see all depend on your point of view. Many societies saw patterns among the stars with
gods and goddesses or
stories from their culture.
Most of the constellations with which we are familiar come from
ancient Greece. But other civilizations created their
own patterns in the sky based on stories and people that were
important to them.
Many peoples noticed that the
planets, the
moon, and
comets moved through the sky in a
different way than the stars.
Because of the rotation of the
Earth and its orbit around the
Sun, we divide the constellations into two groups. Some
constellations never rise nor set, and they are called
circumpolar. All the rest are divided into seasonal
constellations. Which constellations will be circumpolar and which
seasonal depends on your latitude.
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