- Backyard Constellation
What is a Constellation?
What is a constellation? Constellations are patterns of stars that tell a story of our cultures.
Imagine earliest man, stepping out from behind the roaring bonfires beside their shelters to peer into the darkness of the night sky.
From the very young to the very old, I have seen people head back, arm extended, pointing out a formation of stars and telling at least some of the story associated with it. There's Orion, the Hunter! There's the Big Dipper! And sharing their re-discovery with whomever they were with.
Kids especially are delighted to show an adult a constellation and name it, showing that they too are in on this fun story-telling part of our culture.
But child or adult, it's a lovely experience to sit back and gaze up at a clear night sky and see figures that have graced mankind for generation after generation. It's a hereditary cultural gift to share across the ages.
This site will help familiarize you with our constellations and the stories behind them. There is also a section on the stories other cultures have assigned to the constellations, too.
For the last 6-7 million years, we've been looking up at the night sky and making pictures out of what we see there - pictures that reflect our cultural beliefs and the mythologies.
Many constellations grew out of Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Egyptian cultures. In later centuries, European cultures added to the catalogue.
The star formations you are looking at today closely resemble the star patterns people looked at hundreds of thousands - even millions - of years ago. Though since we are travelling a spiral path on our journey through the universe, the stars don't appear exactly where they would have been millions of years ago.
Re-discover the constellations pointed out to you in your youth and listen to the stories of both the old and the new ones you might find in the night sky.
There are 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union, and some amazing stories are attached to them!
How Were Constellations Used in the Past?
As visual beings, humans looked at the stars - a phenomenon that all known people experienced on a regular basis - as a way to catalog and better understand the human experience. The images they configured probably changed many times over the course of history and prehistory.
The constellations we know today were assigned by people in our early history. Cultures designated various star formations as cultural iconic figures and stories. In the West, we know primarily Greek and Roman figures within our constellations. But across the globe cultures have used the stars as a storyboard for their beliefs, their fears, and their admiration of the gods.
These constellation stories reflected cultural beliefs of the time. Images and stories of each culture's gods played out for all to see across the sky, like a huge teaching board sprawling before us. It enabled us to tell our children the tales of bravery, hubris, victory, and defeat of the gods and show them the “picture” that went along with those stories.
Hey, we all hunt food, right? So do the gods! They piece out Orion in the sky as the Great Hunter. Hey, we've all experienced love, right? So do the gods! Zeus' tales were drawn before us, and so on.
Relating our own lives to those of the gods helped us better understand ourselves and our place in the universe.
What is a Constellation - the Zodiac
The mythology behind the sign you were born under. Ah, the bravery of Hercules saving fair maidens from the Leo Lion! Need some rainfall? Look to Aquarius who, people felt, watered the Earth from the sky!
This ring of astrological constellations cycles through the night sky annually. Some assign significant meaning to these star formations and the type of people who are born under them. Some even plan their schedules around the zodiac or astrological signs and the movement of the planets through them.
Whether you apply personality traits to the zodiac signs, or just want to know where to find them and read about the stories associated with them, you can read more here....
Popular Constellations
To my mind, these are the "stars" of the show, so to speak! Well-known and lesser-known star patterns that have fun and interesting stories attached to them that we can share as star gazers.
We owe the ancient Greeks for collecting constellation lore from older cultures as what we know as constellations today. Egyptians, Sumerians, and Assyrians all contributed to the stories behind the great star patterns.
Centuries later, the Europeans of the 16th and 17th centuries added to the constellation catalogue.
Today there is a formal listing of 88 constellations accepted globally by the International Astronomical Union. Read about them here....
Constellations in Other Cultures
You may have read the Greek mythology behind the constellation Gemini, but did you know that Australian Aboriginals see the Gemini twins as twin lizard gods, tasked with populating the Earth with plants and animals?
Comparing what different cultures see in the stars is a very interesting way to see what each culture finds important and story worthy. I find myself getting lost in these multi-cultural tales. Just to see what is similar and what is so very different for different parts of the world is a study in world culture itself!
What is a constellation? It's an opportunity to share, to learn and to enjoy the beauty of the night sky.