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Constellations
Constellations have fascinated astronomers for centuries. They are arbitrary formations of stars perceived as a figure or design, especially one of 88 recognized groups named after characters from classical mythology and various common animals and objects. Questions about the various constellations of stars are what this category is all about.
3,677 Questions
What is the distance between earth and the star zeta in constellation bootes?
180.50 light years away.
How did constellations form in the sky?
Constellations are a group of stars forming a recognizable pattern that is traditionally named after its apparent form or identified with a mythological figure. Modern astronomers divide the sky into eighty-eight constellations with defined boundaries.
(Definition given by Google)
Constellations that circle Polaris year round?
Technically, every single one of them - but the ones that are closest are Ursa Major, Cassiopeia, Ursa Minor, Cepheus, & Draco.
How do you go about getting a 3-D picture of the big dipper?
You need to know not only the relative positions of the Big Dipper stars on the sky, but also their distances. The positions of the stars are given in coordinates called right ascension (RA) and declination (Dec). The RAs are usually given in units of hours, which relate to how the sky appears to rotate once a day in (approximately) 24 hours. The Decs tell how far the stars are north of the projection of the Earth's equator on the sky. These positions are fairly easy to measure, by just noting where the stars seems to be in the sky as we see them. The distances to the stars are much harder to measure. The Big Dipper stars are close enough to the Earth so that they seem to move around in the sky a little bit when they are viewed at different times of the year from the Earth as it moves in its orbit around the Sun. This small change in position during the year is called parallax by astronomers. The farther from the Sun, the less the stars move around. The best parallaxes come from a space satellite mission called HIPPARCOS. The HIPPARCOS results show that the Big Dipper stars are between about 80 and 120 light years from the Earth, with errors of a light year or two. With the direction and distance to each star in the Big Dipper, one can then make a 3-D plot of the stars' positions. The stars at either "end" of the Dipper (at the end of the "handle" and the outside "lip" of the bowl) are the farthest away from us. The other fice stars in the middle turn out to be at almost the same distance (80 light years) from us. So, one should envision the ends of the Dipper being the farthest away from us, while the stars in the middle form a nearly flat pattern as viewed from the Earth. Answered by David B. Shaffer, Ph.D. in astronomy, from Caltech.
Are all stars in a constellation the same shape from earth?
They didn't always, but now they do. This is to make charting and reference more universal and easily understood. There are constellations now that cover the entire sky, and the borders between constellations have been defined. There are no gaps of the sky that fall outside of a defined consellation. So any star or other heavenly body can be named starting with the constellation name.
Which constellation is used to identify the pole star?
the constellation 'Ursa major' is used to identify the pole star
What constellations did Christopher Columbus use?
The constellation that Christopher Columbus used on his journey was the Polaris. He used a compass and limited nautical charts to correct the altitude of Polaris.
north
What is the smallest constellation?
Crux, a.k.a The Southern Cross, is the smallest constellation in the night sky. It occupies an area of only 68 square degrees.
What are the names of the 16 stars in constellation centaurus?
The constellation has a total of 281 stars in the area defined by the constellation boundary of which only 11 are main stars.
What would a beyblade named after the bunny constellation be called?
Probably the nearest would be Lepus, the Hare. There is no bunny constellation.
Orion got its name from Artemies. Orion was a great hunter. Atemies brother, Apollo, tricked his sister Artemies and Artemies killed Orion. After she found out it was a trick from her brother, she felt bad for him that she put him up in the sky with his name
another version is that Orion was fighting with a scorpion but got killed by the scorpion. so Artemies put both of them into the sky. But she put them up into the sky in the opposit side of the sky.
The Orion constellation got its name due to the fact that it resembled the character Orion from mythology. Orion was a great hunter and the constellation resembles a hunter.
Cepheus is located under the North Star. It is not directly underneath it, but when ever you look for Cepeus, you should look for the North Star first, and then a little bit underneath it will be Cepheus. You can see what I mean if you look at maps of the northers night sky.
How many separate events make up a decathlon?
Im guessing 10 separate events. From the root word "deka" which is Greek for 10. The decathlon is a ten event competition spread over two days:
First Day: 100 meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 meter run
Second Day: 110 meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, 1500 meter run
Where is Andromeda in the Orion's belt?
The three stars forming Orion's Belt range from about 5hr30min to 5hr41min in
Right Ascension, and their declinations are are within about 2 degrees of the
celestial equator.
Where you have to look in order to see that part of the sky depends entirely on
your location and the date.
The constellation Gemini is only visible from Earth for several months of the year because?
When the Sun is "in" the constellation of Gemini, that means that from our point of view Gemini is on the other side of the Sun, and is only "visible" while the Sun is up.
Why cannot see all constellations?
If you were on the Equator you would see all of them. Otherwise it depends where you live. I live in New Zealand at latitude 35° S. So I can't see any northern stars closer than 35° to the North Celestial Pole. If you live in the north at say 35°N, then you wouldn't see those stars which are closer than 35° to the South Celestial Pole.
What is the unique about the polaris?
Polaris is situated almost along the axis of the earth's rotation, above the North Pole. As a result, to viewers in the Northern hemisphere, it appears to be stationary above the pole and so acts as a direction finder.
How does the big dipper appear to be moving in relation to the star polaris?
The Dipper appears to rotate in a East to West direction around the celestial North Pole - which is a point that is very close to Polaris.
Where do you get parts for a Mercury Capri?
MODERNCAPRIPARTS.BIZ ebay midmustang .com http://www.midcomustang.com/caprihome.shtml
Like all stars, Polaris is made of mostly Hydrogen, but since polaris is a red giant it has a considerable ammount of Helium, as well as Carbon, Oxygen, and a number of other elements deep in it's core.
What is the constellation that guides us to the pole star?
Ursa Major, which some people refer to as the great bear or the big dipper.
