Constellations and Asterisms

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Eastern Michigan University *

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105

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Astronomy

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Apr 3, 2024

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docx

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4

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Constellations & Asterisms On a clear night, far away from city lights, the number of stars you can see in the sky seems astonishing. They appear to be scattered in random fashion, but human nature soon places the brighter stars into easily recognizable patterns: lines, squares, circles. Throughout history, sky observers have joined the brighter stars into asterisms, patterns of stars which represented animals, objects, or heroes from their various cultural mythologies. In the absence of movies or television, a storyteller could simply point to the sky and illustrate any story being told using any familiar pattern of stars they imagined. These patterns would eventually form the 88 constellations of our modern skies, though most people have a great deal of trouble seeing a “horse” or a “dog” or a “hunter” in the star patterns. Remember that they are only fictional representations used as a reference for navigating the sky! The scientific definition of a constellation is “any one of 88 areas of the sky as designated by the International Astronomical Union”, akin to having state boundaries on a map. Ancient peoples recognized long ago that the Sun appeared to move along a certain path, now called the ecliptic , through a select band of stars in the sky throughout the year . This illusion is the result of the Earth’s orbital motion around the Sun. The constellations found along the ecliptic belong to a privileged set called the Zodiac Constellations . Another special set of constellations that never sets below the horizon is called Circumpolar Constellations . You can download Stellarium for free from https://stellarium.org on your own computer, or use the online software available at https://stellarium-web.org . The Stellarium program serves as the basis for the EMU Planetarium projector system. Complete the following worksheet based on what you observe. Through this activity you will virtually observe constellations, asterisms, and important objects and locations in the sky. This information will be helpful for completing the non-lunar observations this semester if you are unable to attend observing sessions at Sherzer Observatory.
Worksheets Answer the following questions using the Stellarium software or https://stellarium-web.org . 1. As the Earth orbits the Sun once per year, four different season groups of constellations present themselves in our southern sky. Write down the names of 3 noteworthy constellations located in the southern sky for each of the four times and dates listed below. Winter (1/21/2024 22:00:00): Spring (4/21/2024 22:00:00): Summer (7/21/2024 22:00:00): Autumn (10/21/2024 22:00:00): Next, while facing north, identify 3 North Circumpolar constellations, located closest to the NCP – North Celestial Pole. (These are constellations that never completely set below our horizon.) Polaris is located very close to the NCP, which is why it is known as the Northern Star . North Circumpolar (1/8/2024 22:00:00): 2. The path the Sun appears to take through the background stars over one Earth orbit is called the ecliptic . If you are using the Web version of Stellarium, you can turn on the ecliptic by clicking the “View Settings” option (with a gear next to it, in the menu on the left of the screen) and checking the option for “Ecliptic Line.” Turn on the ‘constellations’ and turn off the ‘landscape’ in Stellarium, then search for and lock onto the sun (Stellarium should automatically lock onto the sun if you search for it). Advance time by single-day increments (and/or single-month increments) and observe the sun as it moves through the 13 zodiac constellations. To see the constellation boundaries, click on each of the constellation names. Write down the names of the 13 zodiac constellations in the correct order the sun passes through them, starting from 1/8/2024 22:00:00.
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