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Constellations in our Night Sky

Thursday August 31, 2006

The constellations above the Knoxville sky may be hard to see due to light pollution and smog, but I  assure you, they are up there.  Outside of the city, when the sky is clear and dark, you can see anywhere from 1000 to 1500 stars.  Distinguishing which star is which is a hard thing to do, but associating them with a constellation is much easier.              

 Constellations, like most bedtime          stories and nursery rhymes, are not real.  Over the past 6,000 years, poets, farmers and astronomers have made up these imaginary patterns of stars that are now known as constellations.  For example, Orion, one of the most famous constellations, has a history dating to before 4000 BC.  These imaginary things help break up the sky in more  manageable pieces and help make it easier to tell which star is which. 

Every constellation is visible at a different time of the year; they change from month to month and season to season.  The stories in the stars differ from culture to    culture around the world.  In many ancient cultures, star watching played an important part in religion and          mythology.  Poets wrote of the  mystery of the night sky and the unanswered questions people wondered about.  In some regions, there is not much differentiation        between seasons, but the constellations have always changed.  Historians believe that farmers used these myths to help remind them when it was time to begin planting and when it was time for harvest.

The constellations have changed over the past 6,000 years.  In 1929, the        International Astronomical Union (IAU) adopted official constellation boundaries that defined the 88 official constellations, making every star in the sky a part of exactly one constellation.  Most of the star names in use today came from Arabic names and are named for their coordinates in the sky.    

 One of the easiest stars to pick out in our night sky is Polaris, the North Star.  It always points north and hardly moves at all due to its location and association to Earths axis.  The North Star is also the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper. 

Next time you are out at night take a minute to look up and gaze at the night sky, it is well worth it. 

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