ASTR 1P01 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Constellation

• School: Brock University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: ASTR 1P01
• Professor: Bozidar Mitrovic

Document Summary

Groups of stars which lie in approximately the same direction: may not be close to each other in space. Are identified by name, usually of mythological gods, people, animals or objects. Constellations named within western culture originated in ancient civilizations of. Of those constellations 48 are still in use. Back then, constellations were simply a loose grouping of stars. In 1928, the international astronomical union (iau) established 88 official constellations that had clearly defined permanent boundaries to cover the entire sky. Big dipper is an asterism part of the major ursa constellation. Now a constellation represents a section of the sky, a viewing direction. Asterisms: a less formally defined grouping of stars. The names of stars: while names of constellations are in latin and greek, names of stars come from ancient. Ancient astronomers assigned names to individual, brighter stars. Another way to identify stars was by assigning them a greek letter depending on their brightness.