- Backyard Constellation Names
- Popular Constellation Names
Popular Constellation Names and Meanings
We are a visual species. We make sense of life by relating things to other things, often in a pictorial way. Our constellations and their constellation names tell us a lot about our early cultures and their values and belief systems. Each night we can watch the constellations move through the night sky in a westward fashion, until they seem to disappear over the horizon again.
In the Northern hemisphere, we seem to have formed our constellations primarily by grouping the brightest stars into forms that relate to cultural norms and stories.
In the Southern hemisphere they too use the bright stars for their celestial figures, but they also use the dark areas of the sky and include them in their constellations.
The Greeks collected constellations stories from prior cultures and added their own mythology to each star pattern. Maybe that's why so much of our knowledge of the constellations pertain to Greek mythology.
Current Constellation Names and Origins
Due to their movement in the heavens and the earth's movement through the galaxy, the constellations are impermanent and in several hundred thousand years, existing cultures will look up to see their stars in different positions from ours. But right now, the positions of our stars are captured in pictures by early man in a sky-wide pictorial display.
The names of the constellations with which we are most familiar are primarily of Greek and Roman origin. It makes me wonder what the star patterns were named before that, as surely, humankind had noticed the patterns long before and assigned them names and properties then, too.
The very first constellations familiar to us were collected by the ancient Greeks from the Babylonians, Egyptians, and Assyrians. Then, between the 16th and 17th centuries A.D., European astronomers added to the established constellations, making the 88 catalogued constellations we know today.
Of course, the constellations in the southern hemisphere weren't known and named by the western world until explorers brought us into that part of the world. Indigenous people most likely had their own interpretations of the constellations, but western cultures made them their own after discovering this part of the world around the 15th century.
The constellations categorized by Ptolemy in the 2nd century remain the ones with which western cultures are most familiar - those naming Greek and Roman mythological people/items. But others also named constellations.
Dutch and Polish explorers added to the constellation list when they explored the southern hemisphere. Constellations such as Apus (the Bird of Paradise) and Sextans (the Sextant) were added. Some of these are still recognized; others have passed out of use.
In the southern hemisphere in the mid-1700s, French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille added 14 constellations while studying and cataloguing the night sky. The further served to familiarize western cultures with the stars of the southern hemisphere.
It should be noted though, that indigenous cultures in the southern hemisphere had their own constellation systems and still use them today.
Below are links of popular constellation names, where you will find a short review of the mythology of each constellation and why they were named as they are.
Prepping for Stargazing
Just a couple things before you go on to the links below to explore the sky on your own:
- As you go out to look at the stars and find constellations, try to choose an area that has less light pollution than others. That is, an area where the light from surrounding buildings, towns, traffic and such do not blot out the stars in the sky. Constellations are much easier to see when the sky is as dark as possible.
- New moon nights are best for stargazing. The moon reflects so much light from the sun that it can cause all but the brightest of stars to fade away from view.
- If you are using a stargazing app or a flashlight, make sure it is one that uses a "dark room" background or filter. Those are usually red. Any white lights from your cell phone or a flashlight will cause your eyes to adjust to brighter light conditions again and you'll have to wait for your eyes to readjust to the darkness to better see the stars.
Popular Constellations and Their Stories
In western cultures, the early Greek and Roman constellations are probably the most familiar to everyone. Those are the star formations we will be looking at through the below links.
Read through several to see how some constellations interact with others as together they tell stories of Greek and Roman mythology.
Other sections you'll see on this site will refer you to constellations of the zodiac, constellations of other cultures, and other northern and southern constellations and asterisms.
I'll be adding more and more constellations for you to explore, but for now, enjoy these (links below):