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This article is about the star grouping. For other uses, see Constellation (disambiguation).
Orion is a remarkable constellation, visible from most places on the globe at one time or another during the year. The constellation of Orion is the area outlined in the dashed yellow line. Orion contains a striking and well-known star pattern that has the form of a hunter.
Orion is a remarkable constellation, visible from most places on the globe at one time or another during the year. Orion (ɒˈraɪən a Constellation often referred to as The Hunter, is a prominent constellation one of the largest and perhaps the best-known and most conspicuous The constellation of Orion is the area outlined in the dashed yellow line. Orion contains a striking and well-known star pattern that has the form of a hunter. Orion (ɒˈraɪən a Constellation often referred to as The Hunter, is a prominent constellation one of the largest and perhaps the best-known and most conspicuous
Photo of the familiar constellation Orion.
Photo of the familiar constellation Orion.

In common usage, a constellation is a group of stars that are connected together to form a figure or picture. The term is also traditionally and less formally used to mean any group of stars visibly related to each other, if they are considered as a fixed configuration or pattern in a particular culture. A star is a massive luminous ball of plasma. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the Energy on Earth Some well-known constellations contain striking and familiar patterns of bright stars. Examples are Orion (containing a figure of a hunter), Leo (containing bright stars outlining the form of a lion), Scorpius (a scorpion), and Crux (a cross). Orion (ɒˈraɪən a Constellation often referred to as The Hunter, is a prominent constellation one of the largest and perhaps the best-known and most conspicuous Leo (ˈliːoʊ Lion, symbol, Unicode ♌ is a Constellation of the Zodiac. Scorpius ( Latin for Scorpion, symbol, Unicode ♏ is one of the Constellations of the Zodiac. CRUX is a lightweight I686 -optimized Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users

The astronomical definition of constellation is slightly different, however. A group of stars that can be connected to form a figure or a picture is called an asterism, while a constellation is an area on the sky. In Astronomy, an asterism is a pattern of Stars seen in Earth's sky which is not an official Constellation. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) divides the sky into 88 official constellations[1] with exact boundaries, so that every direction or place in the sky belongs within one constellation. In the northern celestial hemisphere, these are mostly based upon the constellations of the ancient Greek tradition, passed down through the Middle Ages, and contains the signs of the zodiac. The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca Zodiac denotes an annual cycle of twelve stations along the Ecliptic, the apparent path of the sun across the heavens through the Constellations that divide the ecliptic The sun appears to pass through the 12 constellations of the zodiac (plus Ophiuchus) and ancient Greek astronomers believed they had a special significance. Ophiuchus (Ὀφιοῦχος ˌɒfiːˈuːkəs is one of the 88 Constellations and was also one of the 48 listed by Ptolemy.

The constellation boundaries were drawn up by Eugène Delporte in 1930, and he drew them along vertical and horizontal lines of right ascension and declination. Early Life Born on January 10 1882 to Eugène-Marie and Alice Delporte in Antwerp Belgium, his father served as a member of the Force Publique in the Congo Free Right ascension (abbrev RA; symbol α) is the Astronomical term for one of the two Coordinates of a point on the Celestial sphere In Astronomy, declination (abbrev dec or δ) is one of the two coordinates of the Equatorial coordinate system, the other being either However, he did so for the epoch B1875.0, the era when Benjamin A. Gould made the proposal on which Delporte based his work. In Astronomy, an epoch is a moment in time used as a reference for the Orbital elements of a Celestial body. In Astronomy, an epoch is a moment in time used as a reference for the Orbital elements of a Celestial body. Benjamin Apthorp Gould ( September 27 1824 &ndash November 26 1896) was a pioneering American Astronomer. The consequence of the early date is that due to precession of the equinoxes, the borders on a modern star map (eg, for epoch J2000) are already somewhat skewed and no longer perfectly vertical or horizontal. In Astronomy, Precession refers to the movement of the rotational axis of a body such as a planet with respect to Inertial space. In Astronomy, an epoch is a moment in time used as a reference for the Orbital elements of a Celestial body. This skew will increase over the years and centuries to come.

In three-dimensional space, most of the stars we see have little or no relation to one another, but can appear to be grouped on the celestial sphere of the night sky. In mathematics the dimension of a Space is roughly defined as the minimum number of Coordinates needed to specify every point within it In Astronomy and Navigation, the celestial sphere is an imaginary rotating Sphere of "gigantic Radius "

A star pattern may be widely known but may not be recognized by the International Astronomical Union; such a pattern of stars is called an asterism. In Astronomy, an asterism is a pattern of Stars seen in Earth's sky which is not an official Constellation. An example is the grouping called the Big Dipper (North America) or the Plough (UK). This article is about the asterism; for other uses see Big Dipper (disambiguation. This article is about the asterism; for other uses see Big Dipper (disambiguation. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located

The stars in a constellation or asterism rarely have any astrophysical relationship to each other; they just happen to appear close together in the sky as viewed from Earth and typically lie many light-years apart in space. EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001 A light-year or light year (symbol ly) is a unit of Length, equal to just under ten trillion Kilometres As defined by However, one exception to this is the Ursa Major moving group. The Ursa Major Moving Group, also known as Collinder 285, is the closest Moving group to Earth, that is a set of stars with common velocities in space

The grouping of stars into constellations is essentially arbitrary, and different cultures have had different constellations, although a few of the more obvious ones tend to recur frequently, e. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic g. , Orion and Scorpius. Orion (ɒˈraɪən a Constellation often referred to as The Hunter, is a prominent constellation one of the largest and perhaps the best-known and most conspicuous Scorpius ( Latin for Scorpion, symbol, Unicode ♏ is one of the Constellations of the Zodiac.

The first ancient Greek works which dealt with the constellations were books of star myths. The oldest of these was a poem composed by Hesiod in circa the eighth century BCE, of which only fragments survive. Hesiod ( Greek: Hesiodos) was an early Greek Poet and Rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BCE They knew that these constellations were superstitious.

The most complete existing works dealing with the mythical origins of the constellations are by the Hellenistic writer termed pseudo-Eratosthenes and an early Roman writer styled pseudo-Hyginus. Eratosthenes of Cyrene ( Greek; 276 BC - 194 BC was a Greek Mathematician, Poet, athlete, Geographer and Gaius Julius Hyginus (ca 64 BC &ndash AD 17 was a Latin author but whether a native of Spain or of Alexandria is not sure a pupil of the famous

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Dark cloud constellations

Members of the Inca civilization identified various dark areas in the Milky Way as animals, and associated their appearance with the seasonal rains. The Milky Way (a translation of the Latin Via Lactea, in turn derived from the Greek Γαλαξίας (Galaxias sometimes referred to simply These areas are commonly referred to by modern researchers as dark cloud constellations[2] or dark nebula. A dark nebula is a type of Interstellar cloud that is so dense that it obscures the light from the background emission or Reflection nebula (e

Chinese constellations

Main article: Chinese constellation

Chinese constellations are different from the Western constellations, due to the independent development of ancient Chinese astronomy. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Astronomy (from the Greek words astron (ἄστρον "star" and nomos (νόμος "law" is the scientific study Ancient Chinese skywatchers divided their night sky in a different way, but there are also similarities. The Chinese counterpart of the 12 western zodiac constellations are the 28 "Xiu" (宿) or "mansions" (a literal translation). Zodiac denotes an annual cycle of twelve stations along the Ecliptic, the apparent path of the sun across the heavens through the Constellations that divide the ecliptic

Indian constellations

In Hindu/Vedic astronomy Rashi means constellation. Accordingly in a Celestial Zodiac, there are 12 Rashis altogether comprising 12 Nakshatras.

Main article: Nakshatra

Constellation names and star designations

All modern constellation names are Latin proper names or words, and some stars are named using the genitive, or sometimes the ablative of the constellation in which they are found. A nakshatra ( Devanagari: नक्षत्र or lunar mansion is one of the 27 or 28 divisions of the sky identified by the prominent star(s in them that the Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another In Linguistics, ablative case ( abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic These are formed by using the usual rules of Latin grammar, and for those unfamiliar with that language the form of the genitive is sometimes unpredictable and must be memorized. Some examples include: Aries → Arietis; Taurus → Tauri; Gemini → Geminorum; Virgo → Virginis; Libra → Librae; Pisces → Piscium; Lepus → Leporis. In addition, all constellation names have a standard three-letter abbreviation assigned by the International Astronomical Union; for example, Aries becomes Ari, Pisces becomes Psc, Sagittarius becomes Sgr and Ursa Major becomes UMa [1].

Identification of stars within a given constellation includes use of Bayer designations such as Alpha Centauri, Flamsteed designations such as 61 Cygni, and variable star designations such as RR Lyrae. A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek letter, followed by the genitive form of its parent constellation's Alpha Centauri (α Centauri / α Cen also known as Rigil Kentaurus, Rigil Kent, or Toliman, is the brightest Star in the southern Constellation Flamsteed designations for Stars are similar to Bayer designations except that they use numbers instead of Greek letters Not be confused with 16 Cygni, a more distant system containing two G-type stars harboring the Gas giant planet 16 Cygni Bb. Variable stars are named using a variation on the Bayer designation format of an identifying label (as described below combined with the Latin genitive RR Lyrae is a Variable star in the Lyra constellation It is the prototype of the RR Lyrae variables star class However, many fainter stars will just be given a catalog number designation (in each of various star catalogs) that does not incorporate the constellation name. A star catalogue, or star catalog, is an Astronomical catalogue that lists Stars In Astronomy, many stars are referred to simply by catalogue Frequently, the abbreviated form of the constellation name is used in the star designation, e. g. Alpha Cen, 61 Cyg, RR Lyr.

For more information about star names, see star designations and the list of stars by constellation. Designations of stars (and other celestial bodies are done by the International Astronomical Union (IAU

See also

References

  1. ^ Ian Ridpath. Former constellations are Constellations that are no longer recognized by the International Astronomical Union for various reasons Each culture has its own Constellations usually based on Mythology. Here is a list of the 88 modern Constellations by their area in the sky measured in square degrees. The current list of 88 Constellations recognised by the International Astronomical Union since 1922 is based on those listed by Claudius Ptolemy, Greek-speaking mathematician Constellation names, abbreviations and sizes. Retrieved on 2007-10-05. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 869 - The Fourth Council of Constantinople is convened to decide about what to do about Patriarch Photius of Constantinople
  2. ^ The Incan View of the Night Sky

External links

Ian (William Ridpath (born 1 May 1947, Ilford, Essex) is an English science writer and broadcaster made famous for his investigation

Dictionary

constellation

-noun

  1. (astronomy): Any of the 88 officially recognized collections of stars in the night sky.
  2. An arbitrary formation of stars perceived as a figure or pattern.
  3. An image associated with a group of stars.
  4. (astrology): The configuration of planets, as used for determining a horoscope.
  5. (figuratively) A wide, seemingly unlimited assortment.
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