Constellations:- Stars Family

The Stars that the ancients saw close together in the sky are in most cases not near each other at all. They are located in the same direction in space , but may in reality be vast  distances apart just  as an airplane and a bird may appear  to be near each other though actually far apart . To these groups , or "Constellations" of star , the Greeks , Romans ,Chinese , Arabs, Indians and infact star watchers all over the world , gave names often taken from their Mythologies . Most of the names in us etoda Greek or Latin origin.

          The best known of Constellations is probably Ursa major ,the great bear in which the big Dipper forms the tail and part of back . A line through the " Pointer "stars in the bowl of the Big dipper points to Polaris when we are looking North Star . When  we look at polaris we are looking North . Other Famous Constellatins are Ursa Minor , the little Bear , containing polaris ; Orion , the Mighty hunter ; taurus the Bull, with the pleiades, or seven Sisters.

Signposts In The Sky:- 

                                                The Navigator on a ship or an aiplane cannot relay upon lecture to point out the Stars to him. He must know their Location & recognize them in other ways . There ae 55 Special Star known as the Navigation Star . To find all of them and to learn thier Position at the Various  seasons , we will have to study one of the Guide books listed  at the end of the section . But some of  stars are not too difficult to locate . Let's try to find that everybody should know.

                        Ofcourse we have heard of the North Star , called POLARIS , because it is almost directly above the North pole of our Earth . To find it , look for the Pointers . These are the two Stars in the outer Part of the bowl of the Big Dipper . Anyone can spot the Big Dipper because it really looks like a Dipper .follow the pointers across the sky about five times the distance between them and there we will see a bright Star . That is POLARIS.

On Zooming this Image we get :-

 

                                                                                                                                                        

Finding our way by the Stars :-

                                                                                               People who seems to know where to find the right path or locate a spot in strange places are often said to have a sense of direction . We may go on an overnight hike or champing sometime . Suppose we have no Compass . COULD WE FIND THE WAY BY STARS ?

 Answer is YES , we might do so if we had sense of direction . But it would be better to know how to find the North pole of the sky .Once we had find the north pole , we can find East by turning 1/4th right ,west by turning 1/4th left , or south by turning halfway around .

                                           No matter What the season is , if we live  north of the equator , we can easily find the north pole of sky easily .

FINDING THE NORTH POLE OF THE SKY:-

1 )Find the Large Group of seven bright Stars that look like a Dipper .

2 ) Follow along a line we draw between two stars in the bowl of dipper .

3 ) Look for the first bright star which is also the last star in the Handle of a Smaller  dipper of Seven stars . 

     That bright star is polaris  , the north pole star of the sky . It is almost exactly above the Noth pole of earth .

                                                     Now that we know how to find the polaris , we ought to know the names of the stars that helped to we find it .The big dipper is part of the group of Stars , or Constellation ,  called the Great Bear . The stars though which we drew your line are called the Pointers . The Small dipper is in the Constellation the little bear . If we can find these Stars & Constellations , we will not have to worry about a sense of direction or time . The Pole star will be Our guide . And the dippers will be our clock .As we take following direction than we see this Star Phenomenon     easily.....!!!!!

              Once we found the Dippers and Polaris ,we can use them as Guides to Locate some of the Other Constellations and navigational stars . Let our continue on across Polaris , we will see a Great quare of four Brilliants Stars (As Shown in above fig.) . This is the part of the Constellation of PEGASUS , the Winged Horse .  It is one of the unmistakable signposts in the sky . Between Polaris & Pegasus is a W - shaped Constellation . This is called CASSIOPEIA  , it means the Lady in Chair . It is easy to find Constelltions if we know a few to use as guides . we can also try to find star Chart . Then we go Star & Constelallation hunting in the our Beautiful Sky.