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observation of the constellations
constellations
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Constellations have been around since the beginning of time. Constellations are a group of stars that form a recognizable pattern that is normally named after it’s perceptible form or identified with subjects of mythology. They are truly amazing sights to see and learn about while just gazing at the night sky. There are eighty-eight total constellations in the night sky. There are fifty-five constellations in the southern hemisphere, twenty in the northern hemisphere, and five on the celestial equator. Celestial means positioned or relating to the sky, or outer space from a space point of view. Celestial is used to describe things related to the heavens such as angels, stars, spirits, and planets. The word Celestial is from the Latin word caelestis, which also brought about the word ceiling. Constellations have some odd names, like Pegasus, Crux, and Scutom. They all …show more content…
It is only possible to see 2000-2500 stars at one time. There are even billions of other stars that are too far away and dim to see from Earth. Ever see those three stars in a row in the night sky? Those three stars are a part of the constellation Orion the Hunter, and is called Orion’s Belt. Those three stars are considered to be an asterism. An asterism is a pattern of stars that are widely known and is within a constellation, but is mistaken as its own constellation. The Big Dipper, for example, is only seven stars of the completed constellation Ursa Major. The Big Dipper would then be advised as an asterism. The largest recorded constellation is Hydra or “water snake.” This constellation takes up 3.16%of the sky. The smallest constellation is Crux. It takes up .17% of the sky. The Constellation with the largest amount of stars is Centaurus with a total of 101 stars. Canis Major contains the brightest star in the celestial heavens, named
If there is one great constellation, it is the constellation of Gemini. As a Zodiac Constellation, it is only visible during parts of the year. It's two brightest stars, Castor and Pollux, give it the name of the Twins. Anyone born in the end of May until late June is said to have two faces: one of Pollux's and one of Castor's.
The two astronomers found many patterns after developing their graph. They found that 90% of stars graphed fell within a band that ran through the middle of the graph. These stars range from cool, dim, red stars at the lower right of the H-R Diagram to hot, bright, blue stars at the upper left corner of the H-R Diagram. The stars that fall into to this band are known as main-sequence stars. Stars such as the sun, and almost every start visible in the night sky fall within this band of main sequence stars. There is another group of stars which are cool and bright that appear near the upper right corner of the H-R Diagram.
I was born with an inherent fascination for all things celestial. Ever since I was young, I have been staring at the night sky trying to find constellations, or using my juvenile imagination to create my own. My efforts to find, view, and mentally catalogue everything the heavenly bodies have to offer has led me to employ some over-the-top measures, but the most extreme of them all might be the night I stayed awake through the wee hours of the morning to catch a glimpse of a meteor shower. Over the course of an entire year, the memory of this stupefying event is still as lucent and vivid as it was that very night so long ago.
While looking in the sky at night, you try to point out the different constellation you see. Most people know the major constellations, but many do not know about the constellation Delphinus. There are many scientific and literary explanations for the constellation Delphinus.
After recognizing that Rick Riordan’s novels from the Percy Jackson series would not suffice as research, I began my development of knowledge on Perseus and Pegasus with research. Beginning with the magazines Sky & Telescope and Astronomy and the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, I viewed countless photographs of the constellations before turning to other websites to learn about the mythology and other basic information.
A nebula is a space dust that appears as a hazy bright, colorful patch in the sky. The Orion Nebula goes way back from millions of years ago and is made up of mostly hydrogen, but also helium, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen (Wiley 1). The Orion Nebula is also known as M42, Messier 42, and NGC 1976 (Ivan P. 1). Even though the Orion Nebula may have a giant black hole in the middle of it, The Orion Nebula is still the brightest nebulae because it can be seen with the naked eye during certain times of the year and has the three brightest stars in it.
They’re carbon stars, a unique type of variable star, which accumulate soot in their upper atmosphere that scatters light near the blue end of the spectrum. What’s left for us to view is the red component of a star’s light. As the carbon particles build up, the star fades in brightness and gets even redder. Eventually, the carbon absorbs enough radiation to escape the star, and the cycle starts over again.
Algol is one of the most popular and well known variable stars in the sky because it can be observed with the unaided eye and it has a relatively short period of less than three days. This means you if go outside every night and make a careful check of it, sooner or later you will see Algol wink at you.
Perseus, or “the hero,” has twenty-eight stars. The brightest, most recognizable ones are Mirfak and Algol. Mirfak is the brightest star of Perseus. It is a little bit brighter than Polaris, the North Star. Algol is the most famous star. In the constellation, Algol is the eye of Medusa, translating to “demon star.” People used to think that Algol was cursed due to its constant change in brightness, but we know today that sometimes another star overlaps Algol, causing its magnitude to appear to change. Perseus has six stars with confirmed planets. (Coder pp. 85 & 87, Fanshawe, Perseus Constellation, Perseus Hero)
The dimmer the star the higher its apparent magnitude will be. Apparent Magnitude is used to measure how bright a star is to the human eye. Absolute Magnitude is the measurement of how bright a star actually is. By comparing the magnitude of Betelgeuse to that of the sun the numbers are as follows; Betelgeuse has an apparent magnitude of .41 with an absolute magnitude of -7.2. The sun has an apparent magnitude of -26.8 and an absolute magnitude of 4.8. This means that the sun looks brighter to us than Betelgeuse by our own eyes but in actuality the sun is
"Leda and the Constellation Cygnus." Department of Engineering, University of Michigan. 17 February 1999 http://windows.ivv.nasa.gov/mythology/cygnus.html.
The constellation I have chosen is Ursa Major, specifically the Big Dipper within it. Ironically, Ursa Major is my favorite because of one of its many creation stories. Ursa Major is also known as the Great Bear, and lies in the northern hemisphere. It was one of the 88 constellations first recognized by the International Astronomical Union. It is also the third largest constellation in the sky. I recognize that the Big Dipper is not a constellation, this creation story is too good to pass up sharing. I love sharing it whenever I am camping with friends and the sky is clear enough to see it. This story is of Native American orgiin.
The Andromeda Galaxy being 220,000 light years across is the biggest of its local galaxy group which includes the Milky Way Galaxy, Triangulum Galaxy, and about 44 smaller galaxies. The Andromeda Galaxy contains about (1 trillion*10to the 12th power) stars, which is more then double the estimated 200- 400 billion stars located in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Along with this the Andromeda Galaxy has a brightness magnitude of 3.4 making it one of the brightest of all the Messier Object group.
The Orion Nebula is one of the closest stellar regions to the Earth. Using parallax measurements, it has been estimated that this nebula is only 1,500 light years away. In addition, the Orion Nebula is a relatively young star cluster, with an approximate age of less than one million years. It has even been speculated that some of the younger stars within the cluster are only 300,000 years old.
One thing us as humans have never been able to fully understand is astronomy. Always having an unexplained mystery, astronomy also has served as a way to keep time and predict the future. The word “astronomy” is defined as the study of heavenly bodies, meaning anything in the sky such as stars, galaxies, comets, planets, nebulae, and so on. Many people, if not everyone, is amazed by the night sky on a clear, moonless night.