What it feels like when I try to learn the constellations.

limmah · 2 months

I remember Principal Skinner once identified a single star as "The Chariot Race" or something similar.

bmfdan · 2 months

In fairness to the ancients, they didn't have anything else to waste their time with except making up patterns in the stars.

NotaMethAddict · 2 months

The only group of stars I've ever been able to make out is the Big Dipper. I can't even fathom how they saw all of the other constellations.

Chaseman69 · 2 months

That happens every time I go to the plane-arium

NeutralAngel · 2 months

Well, there's... Jerry the Cowboy. And that big dipper looking thing is Alan... the Cowboy.

greycubed · 2 months

Are you just looking at the sky while learning them? Because with all the light pollution today stars are like 1/10th* of their former brightness. Many no longer visible.

*Dependent on bla bla bla.

Edit: Upvote this. To look up and see a galaxy...

MrBoog · 2 months

I stared for far too long trying to locate the other star in that second image, and I finally found it!

Omelette_Jew_Finnish · 2 months

I used to look up and feel complete lost and confused until I looked at a star map one day. I can't recommend it enough. Just take a few minutes to pick out a few constellations and then you will always know them and once you know a few you can start to see how the whole sky spins around Polaris. Here's how I started: You probably know Orion. If you don't, find that one first, it's super easy to spot. Orion holds a sword in his right hand which are the feet of the Gemini twins. His left hand holds a bow which shoots an arrow right into Taurus's head. From Taurus, Aries and Pisces aren't hard to find (Pisces takes up half the fucking sky). Cassiopeia makes a good starting point to "star-hop" towards other constellations. At first you're like "Wait, wtf it's just a 'W', all the fucking starts are W's." But once you find Cassiopeia, there's a lot of other neat stuff nearby. Try to find Pegasus, and on a clear night you might see the Andromeda Galaxy on one of his legs. My favorite is Sagittarius. It's a teacup and the Milky Way is the steam.

Sorry for rambling, but I think it's neat.

burnt_chicken_wing · 2 months

I was watching my friend play Skyrim, and this constellation came up for Pickpocket. I initially thought, oh, this could totally pass for a hand (facing upwards)! Then it came up as a hand facing downwards ಠ_ಠ

Cheddar_Curtain · 2 months

http://qkme.me/3q0354

RockKiller · 2 months

I grew up learning constellations on Long Island. I got pretty good at the major ones because they were all we could see from my backyard. A couple of years ago my girlfriend and I were visiting a friend on Cayman Brac. We went fishing one night when she asked where the North Star was was. So I looked up to the north for Polaris, and I realized that I knew jack-shit-all about the night sky. It was absolutely gorgeous how many stars we could see, but all I could do was point out the Milky Way and wonder how in the hell we learned to navigate using these things.

brucemo · 2 months

Some of them are pretty good.

Once you figure out Taurus, you can see its face, its eye, and the tips of its horns.

Orion is definitely a dude who's beating Taurus in the head with a stick. Hercules is the same sort of thing, but less noticeable. Canis Major is maybe Orion's dog, but it's easy to find because of Sirius, which is the brightest.

Pegasus is a square, but it kind of has neolithic horse bits, I guess.

Scorpio, yeah, okay. It has a bright red eye and a tail.

Deneb is a big goose or a big cross, take your pick.

Lyra maybe is a lyre, but Vega is so cool I don't care. The lyre is a nice retinue for Vega. Vega is a more feminine Sirius. It's almost as bright, but clear as a bell.

Sagittarius is so like a tea pot it's very clear that it was named before tea pots existed. So that's the tea pot, to me. Look at it with binoculars and you'll blow your mind.

Leo, I can see that being a lion, sitting on its haunches, although Regulus isn't strong enough for a lion.

The Big Dipper is a dipper, not a bear, and the Little Dipper is a dipper you can't see.

Gemini is two stars, which I guess is twins.

But some of them, forget it. Virgo, Cassiopeia, no way.

Triangulum is undeniably accurately named though.

jjjjjohn · 2 months

should definitely check out "The Stars: A New Way to See Them," by H.A. Rey (guy who co-wrote/illustrated the Curious George books). he came up with new constellation diagrams that are easier to identify and make more sense. examples here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._A._Rey#Star_Charts

mufinz · 2 months

you learn them pretty quick if you ever buy a telescope and get into astronomy. great way to navigate around the sky =)

foreverwithcats · 2 months

[deleted]

ZombieCancer1996 · 2 months

And these stars up here....Oh wait.....There are no stars, I'm in Houston.

nonnein · 2 months

try "the stars" by h. a. rey (same author of curious george). his illustrations make a lot more sense than the traditional ones.

DiscordianStooge · 2 months

I usually have this same thought. Then, I was on the Big Island of Hawaii, where light pollution is severely limited because of the observatories. I was driving early in the morning, looked up and said, "That must be Pegasus." The thing looked so much like a damn winged horse I couldn't help but notice it.

It may have helped that I had a severe facial injury and had taken a bit of vicodin, but I was happy to see a real constellation.

starstuff3 · 2 months

AstroProTip: If you live somewhere where very few stars are visible (like a big city) and you see a particularly bright star, it's probably a planet. I believe the exceptions are Sirius, Vega, and Arcturus (Northern Hemisphere) and Canopus and Alpha Centauri (Southern Hemisphere).

Also, you can use this to learn the sky and where to look for certain objects based on where you live.

P.S. It looks like the objects in the picture you posted are Saturn and Spica. There is a chance that Spica could blow up as a supernova within any time ranging from tomorrow to millions of years in the future. When it does go supernova it will be about as bright as the full moon.

lexixd · 2 months

RELEVANT!

I just rented a book from the public library called 'The Stars, a new way to see them.' Second edition by H.A. Rey

No joke this book is so on my level. Teaches you constellations without making it impossible.

TRUTH.

akajuicy · 2 months

False. This is the constellation Canis Minor.

Galaxey · 2 months

upvote for south park reference and truthfulness

knobblyer · 2 months

In fairness they were looking at them from very far away.

djlewt · 2 months

Don't bother, in 50,000 years they'll all be different anyways.

Pfhoraphobia · 2 months

Canis minor bro. Canis minor. Fornax too.

Volsunga · 2 months

What people tend to forget is that it isn't just stars that are part of constellations, it's the clouds of dust too. It's just that nobody gets to see that anymore due to light pollution. They are also highly dynamic and can drastically change on a scale of centuries, so the dust clouds we look at are completely different from those observed by ancient astronomers.

cleverseneca · 2 months

has anyone else heard the theory that maybe between light polution, the death of Stars and the expanding nature of the universe that maybe some of the patterns noticeable a few thousand years ago when the constellations were named, are no longer more than a few dots in the sky?

MattieShoes · 2 months

FWIW, constellations technically map out sectors of the sky now, and there's no real consistency in terms of what lines are supposed to connect what dots. For some like Ursa Major, the bear is pretty obvious. But for others, just find a shape that you can easily pick out. Perseus is a Y, Cassiopeia is a W, Andromeda is an A, Bootes is a lowercase cursive L... Lyra is a paralellogram, Orion is two lines, Cepheus is a house, Sagittarius is a teapot, Cygnus is a bow and arrow pointed at Aquila (a retarded arrow), etc.

Another trick -- start with the polar constellations. They tend to be visible throughout the year, and they're in the same section of sky every night.

Assuming Northern hemisphere: Ursa Major (big dipper), Ursa Minor (little dipper), and Cassiopeia. Then Cepheus and Draco. Then just work your way south with those as referents.

EDIT: This is an annotated picture of the the typical northern sky in summertime.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattie_shoes/559757842

pecamash · 2 months

The best is Cancer (the crab). Most of the time they don't even bother to connect the stars to resemble a crab in any way. It's like all of astronomy go together and said "Screw it, you're right. That doesn't look like a crab at all."

RIPeyedea · 2 months

Not all constellations are meant to resemble their title. Many are tributes - our ancestors saw a pretty grouping of stars and named it in honor of X

smokingirishmonkey · 2 months

I thought the same thing. All I could ever find were the big dipper and Orion.

I was recently in Hawaii with a nice digital camera (Sony NEX-7) and Google Sky Map on my phone. I'd locate a constellation on my phone, point my camera in the general direction, and take a picture with a longer exposure time. Saw some pretty bad ass stars. Here's Scorpio: http://imgur.com/1zI41 - Antares is the bright star just above center in the picture. Rotate the image in wikipedia about 45 degrees CCW.

That night I found Hercules, Scorpio, Canus Major, the Big Dipper, Centaraus, the southern cross, and one or two others I've forgotten now.

I had to be lenient with some of them, but a lot of times I could make out "legs" or "heads" and stuff.

uidsea · 2 months

I laughed way harder than I should of at this.

pio · 2 months

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuDei5xLgzI

cackslop · 2 months

Imagine what the night sky would look like without the air and light pollution we have now.

Drunken_Upvoter · 2 months

Completely agree. However the constellations are ever changing and a constant view into the past of our universe. Sorry for the upvotes to all your comments and posts OP.

Cbeckwith411 · 2 months

I really don't get how constellations always appear the same. Aren't they moving at millions of miles an hour constantly?

blargler · 2 months

This is actually a real constellation - canis minor

chicagogam · 2 months

i wonder how messed up a sentient species would develop if out a zillion to one chance their stars perfectly aligned in a perfect rendering of an angry face. would they be more warlike...would their science suffer...

yumtasticmexii · 2 months

i think i can see it

funny

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