What are Constellations?

What are constellations? There are actually two answers. To you or me, a constellation is a pattern of bright, highly visible stars, like Orion. But to astronomers, constellations are specific regions of the sky around those patterns.

Many stars in space are shown. Some are much larger and brighter than the others. Lines connect several stars to create an irregular shape. The camera zooms out to show more stars connected into irregular shapes. Lines divide the space around these shapes into various polygons. All this appears in the sky over a telescope in an observatory on Earth.

Question: What do astronomers think a constellation is?

• constellations are specific regions of the sky around those patterns made up of stars

• a pattern of bright, highly visible stars.

• a lot of stars sprinkled in the sky

Constellations are located above the earth’s poles, so they don’t rise or set each night, and they’re visible all year round. Ursa Minor, or the little bear, is one of these constellations. It contains Polaris, which is known as the North Star. The North Star is seen all year around. Since ancient times, sailors, explorers, and plain old hikers have used it to figure out which way is north.

Question: During which season can constellations be seen?

• winter

• spring and fall

• all year around

• the summer

The 12 zodiac constellations rotate around this circle as Earth rotates around the sun. The constellations are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. Each zodiac constellation represents the number of months in the year.

Question: The number of constellations in the Zodiac is equivalent to:

• the number of days in the month

• the number of weeks in a month

• the number of months in the year which are 12.

• the number of years in a decade

Astrology, or the study of horoscopes, is not based on the scientific method. Astrology can not be proven by means of experiments. Therefore, it's considered pseudoscience.

Question: What can you infer about the prefix "pseudo-?"

• ancient

• false

• popular

• heavenly

Astronomers have divided the celestial sphere into 88 of these constellations. The celestial sphere is how we see the universe from our position on Earth. It’s basically an imaginary ball with us at the center and stars sprinkled all over it.

When the Earth rotates on its axis around the sun each one of the sphere’s 88 constellations contains thousands—even millions—of visible stars and galaxies during certain times during the year.

Question: What phenomenon is responsible for the fact that some constellations are only visible at certain times during the year?

• the revolution of the moon around the planet

• the rotation of the Earth on its axis

• the revolution of the Earth around the sun

• the revolution of the sun around the Milky Way

Most of the constellations we know originally came from ancient Greece, Rome, and the Middle East. But ancient cultures all over the world—from China to Mexico—had different systems based on their own mythologies.

Most of the constellations we're familiar with were first charted by:

• The International Astronomical Union

• Ancient Europeans and Middle Easterners

• Astronomers in ancient China

• Mayan Astronomers