#STARS CONSTELLATIONS PROFESSIONAL#
This catalog, called, appropriately enough, the Messier Catalog, and is still in use today.Even professional astronomers sometimes admit to having difficulty recognizing all of the 88 modern constellations, as most constellations are marked out by some stars that are not that visible to the naked eye, except under exceptionally good seeing conditions. The objects in this catalog were identified by his initial M and a number indicating the order in which he cataloged them. His main passion was searching for comets and he made a list of objects in the sky that weren't comets and put them into a catalog.
The "M" stands for Charles Messier, who was a French astronomer that lived on the eighteenth century. In the case of the Orion Nebula, this number is M42. In several of our example constellations, like Orion, we make reference to objects like the Orion Nebula and have an "M" followed by a number. It's actually pretty easy once you get started. Once you have found the really big ones, like Orion and the Big Dipper, you will get use to looking for, and recognizing, the patterns of the constellations. Keep this in mind when you are just getting started finding the constellations. If you hold your hand out at arm's length and spread your fingers, Orion will be at least as large as your hand is. In addition to the giant red star Aldebaran, Taurus is the home of the Crab Nebula and the Pleiades cluster.Īlthough we have provided maps and charts for all of our example constellations, and given general times when you can see them, it is still very difficult to accurately show our three-dimensional sky on a flat screen like your computer monitor.Īll of the constellations and asterisms we show you are actually quite large in the sky. In addition to a few of the constellations, we will also give you guides to a few "asterisms", which aren't officially constellations, but are easily recognizable patterns of stars that are either parts of a larger official constellation, such as the Big Dipper, or just good landmarks, like the Summer Triangle.Įnjoy your trip through these fascinating residents of our night sky!Īnother companion of Orion, Taurus is located directly above the Hunter in the sky. We will also give you a simple chart that you can use that should help you identify the constellation in the sky. We will tell you where to look for them and when during the year you can expect to see them. What we are going to do is pick a few of them that are easy to find no matter whether you live in the city or the country. We aren't going to list all of them, since that has been done in several other places on the internet.
There are currently eighty-eight figures in the sky that have been generally recognized as being "official" constellations by whoever it is that designates such things. These stories, also known as mythology, behind the constellations can be as interesting as studying the constellations themselves. People have done this throughout the ages by creating very interesting stories and legends in an attempt to explain where these large "pictures" in the sky came from. The fascinating figures that we see in the night sky are so large and so beautiful that we have felt a very strong urge to attach importance to them. You are seeing this message because you are using an out-of-date browser.Ĭonstellations have been an important part of human society and folklore since we humans lived in caves, and, probably, even before then.
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