Stars Unit 1-1 Space & Constellations

Space: The Final Frontier In the words of Douglas Adams: “According to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, ‘Space,’ it says, ‘is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.’”

Stars As you look into the night sky, you see millions of tiny spots of light. –Each of those spots is a star, some many times larger than our sun. There are literally more stars than we can count in the night sky. –This question actually has no answer, as the more we look into space, the more stars we keep finding!

Stars Scientists and mystics have looked at stars since the beginning of time, however it is only recently that scientists have understood what a star is. Since ancient time, mystic properties and titles have been assigned to the stars.

Stars But why has space and the stars held our imagination for so long? –Space travel –Aliens (friendly and otherwise) –Other worlds –Black Holes –Etc. Space literally is the great frontier!

Constellations Because we have the tendency to see patterns or recognizable shapes in objects, people have found shapes in the night sky. –These shapes are called constellations. –A constellation is a group of stars that we assign a name to. –Most of our constellations come from Greek and Roman mythology.

Constellations Take a look at Orion the Hunter: –What the stars actually look like –How the constellation connects together –How the Greeks imagined it looked

Constellations Other famous constellations: –Cygnus the Swan –Cassiopeia the Queen –Ursa Major (and the Big Dipper)

Constellations What is the purpose of constellations? –Constellations serve mundane and useful purposes –Constellations help categorize stars, making them recognizable with a little practice. –Constellations are also incredibly useful to navigate with.

Constellations Some stars, like Polaris (The North Star), are circumpolar. –That means that they are in line with the earth’s axis and are directly above the north pole. –When the earth rotates, the north star stays (relatively) in one spot, the other stars seemingly rotating around it.

Constellations If you know the time, have a star map, and can view the position of the stars and constellations, you can determine the direction you need to travel. If you are in the southern hemisphere, you will need a different star chart.