What Are Constellations?
A group of stars is called constellation. When the stars had been studied by a man in olden days, he observed that a pattern is being formed when he joined the stars with imaginary lines by many other stars. Until now 88 constellations have been studied by the scientists.
We can see some of these constellations from the northern hemisphere; however the others can be seen only from the southern hemisphere. Leo, Ursa Major, Taurus, Cygnus, Orion etc. are considered as the famous constellations. We have the charts of all the constellations and with the help of these charts we can observe the constellations in the sky. We can see some of these constellations in summer whereas the other in winter season. In ancient times, these constellations are used by man to find out the directions of his journey. However, the positions of constellations change with respect to our earth but the position of Polaris and North Star remains fixed.
Astronomically these constellations have great importance. In the sky, the position of other stars is being determined by the astronomers with the help of these constellations. As the longitudes and latitudes help us to locate and identify the rivers, mountains, seas and cities etc. on the earth. In the same way constellations help us to study the stars in the sky. Constellations also play important role in the space flights of astronauts.
