How Many Constellations

recognise and draw the Plough, Orion, Cygnus and Cassiopeia demonstrate the use of ‘pointers’ and other techniques to find other celestial objects, including:
i Arcturus and Polaris from the Plough
ii Sirius, Aldebaran and the Pleiades from Orion
iii Fomalhaut and the Andromeda Galaxy from the Great Square of Pegasus

Most people recognise Ursa Major. How many other constellations can you recognise? How many stars do you know the names of? You will get more and more pleasure from looking up at the sky when you start to learn to find your way around.

The four constellations/asterisms you need to be able to recognise are;

The Plough Orion Cygnus Casseopeia

 

Once we can recognise a few constellations we can use these to find others and other objects of interest.

- The two stars at the top of the Plough, Merak and Dubhe, above point the way to Polaris. If you know where Polaris is then you know which way North is.

- If you follow the curve of the handle of the plough this will take you to Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation of Bootes.

- The three stars in a line in the middle of Orion are known as Orion's Belt. Follow these stars from right to left and they point to Sirius in the constellation of Canis Major, the brightest star in the sky.

- If you follow a line from Orion's right shoulder (Bellatrix) through the top of his bow on the diagram above this will take you to Aldebaran, a red giant in the constellation of Taurus.

- Keep following this line and you will find the Pleiades, a beautiful star cluster also in Taurus.

- Formalhaut, in Piscis Austrini, is notable as the first star other than our own to show evidence of having a planet. One can find it by following a line as shown down the Square of Pegasus.

- Using Pegasus one can also find the Andromeda Galaxy. The only object visible with the naked eye that is not in our galaxy.