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 pictures made up
of bright stars which appear close to each other on the sky. Like a
game of connect the dots, if you use your imagination when you look at
the stars, you may see a dog or a cat or some other interesting figure.
People long ago, like the ancient Greeks, did the same thing, although
they saw the stars as pictures of
gods and goddesses or of
stories from their culture.
Many peoples noticed that the
planets, the
moon, and
comets moved through the sky in a
different way than the stars.
The motion of the Earth and the motion of the Sun in our sky
affect the stars and the constellations that we see in spring,
summer, fall, and winter. Some constellations never rise or set, and
they are called circumpolar. All the other constellations can only
be seen during certain seasons.
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
The
Summer 2010 issue of The Earth Scientist, available in our
online store, includes articles on rivers and snow, classroom planetariums, satellites and oceanography, hands-on astronomy, and global warming.
You might also be interested in:
Our 2010 Summer issue of The Earth Scientist includes six articles dealing with various aspects of Earth Science. An article from NOAA details how lake effect snow can, under the right conditions, actually occur on the narrow Mississippi River.
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The Earth may only have one Moon, but it's a big one! The Earth's Moon is the fifth largest in the whole solar system. But it is still smaller than the Earth, so objects weigh less on the Moon than they
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Not too long ago, many people thought that comets were a sign that something terrible was about to happen. People didn't understand about how objects in the sky moved, so the sight of a comet must have
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Windows Scientists found twelve new stars! No, not really! But they did create twelve new pages about some of the brightest stars in the night sky. Some of the constellations are Leo, Ursa Major and Virgo.
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The pinpoints of light that you see in the night sky are stars. Your ability to see the stars depends on how bright they are, as well as how close they are to Earth. Stars are giant balls of gas in space
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