What's in the Sky?

describe the appearance of stars, double stars, asterisms, constellations, open clusters, nebulae and globular clusters in the night sky
demonstrate an awareness of how the official list of constellations became established and cultural differences in this list
demonstrate an awareness of how the official list of constellations became established and cultural differences in this list

If you see an interesting star in the sky how do you tell someone else where to find it?

Constellations and Asterisms

The first thing you would tell them is what constellation it is in. A constellation is actually just a section of the sky. The whole sky is divided into 88 constellations which have distinct boundaries. The system we use now was created in 1930.

Within a constellation we see stars which form a pattern in the sky. These patterns are called asterisms. Different cultures named these patterns after objects which were familiar to them.

In Chinese astronomy the star cluster we call the Pleiades is called Hairy Head	In Indian astronomy the top part of Orion resembles the head of a deer	Aboriginal Australians recognised dark nebulas e.g. the emu in the sky	Telescopium in the southern hemisphere was named by an astronomer in the 18th century

The stars in a constellation appear close to each other in the sky but are not necessarily actually close to each other. Some may be relatively close and others much further away. A good example of this is the 3 stars we see in Orion's belt.

Here are a number of other objects you may see in the sky with or without a telescope

Double Stars (Albireo)	Open Clusters (M103)	Nebulae (Orion)	Globular Clusters (M2)