What is the constellation? What's the use? Can it really fit a person's personality?

Netizen asked: What is the constellation?

A: This is a good question. There are many reasons why people use constellations in history, and they have been changing.

Astronomy is the oldest science, because even the earliest cavemen looked up at the sky and wanted to know what made it run. People see that the movement of stars is regular and predictable.

The origin of constellations may be related to religion. People think that God lives in the sky, and they created constellations. Many cultures believe that the position of the stars is God's way of telling stories. Therefore, it seems natural to identify the patterns in the sky, name them and tell their stories. We inherited the name of the constellation from the Greeks. They named the constellations after mythical heroes and legends.

So there is a story behind every constellation. For example, for the ancient Greeks, Orion was a great hunter. He is the son of Neptune, so he named Orion after him. But the Egyptians thought that the same stars depicted Osiris. So every culture has its own explanation.

Illustration: The constellation diagram drawn by Frederick de Witt at 1670.

Constellations can also be applied to a practical field-agriculture. Before there is a suitable calendar, people can't decide when to sow and when to harvest without the help of stars. Constellations make the patterns of stars easy to remember. The ancients knew that Orion began to appear completely, indicating the arrival of winter. In addition, they can know when summer or spring will come by observing the summer triangle. Stars enable farmers to prepare for agricultural planting in advance, while constellations make it easier for people to identify and explain the star patterns in the sky.

Illustration: The map of the Tang Dynasty in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes is now in the British Museum.

Constellations are also helpful for navigation. Once you find Ursa minor, it's easy to find Polaris. A person can know his latitude by observing the height of Polaris in the night sky. This provides convenient conditions for ships to sail around the world. It contributed to the discovery of America, the spread of European culture and the civilization we know today.

Illustration: Andromeda strain painted by Al Sufi.

Today's constellations also have practical uses. They determine the way stars are named. When astronomers attend meetings, they like to share their research results with others. Usually they tell others what stars or objects they may be looking at. If they just give the coordinate parameters, others are unlikely to know the position of the stars in the sky at once.

Illustration: Constellation is actually the projection of the stars seen from the earth on the celestial sphere.

But if you say the name of this star is alpha, then you know it is the brightest star in Taurus. Stars are named after their constellations (all the stars are in a certain constellation). From the brightest stars to the darkest stars, they are all named with Greek letters. For example, Oris is the second brightest star in Orion (also called Betelgeuse).

Related astronomical knowledge

Constellation is a group of stars that form an imaginary outline or pattern on the celestial sphere, usually representing animals, mythical figures or creatures, gods or inanimate objects.

Illustration: Star map of Orion's star region. As can be seen from the legend, the brighter the star, the larger the black circle it represents.

The origin of the earliest constellations can be traced back to prehistoric times. People use them to tell their beliefs, experiences, creations and fairy tales. Different cultures and countries have their own constellations, some of which lasted until the beginning of the 20th century, and today, constellations have been recognized internationally. With the passage of time, the use of constellations has changed significantly. Many have changed in size and shape. Some constellations were very red at first, and then they gradually became unknown. Others are confined to a single culture or country.

At present, 48 traditional constellations in the west are Greek constellations. They appeared in Aratus's Phenomena and Ptolemy's Magna Carta, but their origins may be centuries earlier than these works. From15th century to18th century, when European explorers started to travel to the southern hemisphere, they found many constellations in the far south. 12 ancient constellations belong to the ecliptic (crossing the ecliptic, the sun, the moon and the planets all pass through the ecliptic). The origin of the zodiac is uncertain in history, but its "astrology" component is very prominent. In 400 BC, in the astronomy of Babylon or Chaldea, the ecliptic may date back to prehistoric times.

1928, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially accepted 88 modern constellations, whose borders are adjacent and cover the whole celestial sphere. Any point in celestial coordinate system can be found in modern constellations. Some astronomical naming systems include a constellation in which any designated celestial body can find its approximate position in the sky. For example, named after the Franster catalog, a star consists of a number and the generic form of the constellation name.

Other stars or constellations called constellations are not constellations themselves, but are used by observers to navigate the night sky. Take a group of bright stars as an example, the Pleiades and hyenas in Taurus and the mirror stars of Venus in Orion. Some constellations, such as false cross, are divided into two constellations; And just like the summer night triangle, you can enjoy the stars of several constellations.

reference data

1. Wikipedia

2. Astronomical terminology

3. Curiosity-Marco Kerkow-Dill Xue Fei

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