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 Who Discovered Constellations? Show a visual of a "star map". Mention and describe popular constellations: Big dipper, Andromeda, and Orion.

Have you ever heard of the big dipper? Or maybe Orion? These are called constellations. The night sky composes of 88 star constellations. The constellations are not something that a special scientist, or specific person of power, would have discovered as you may think. The Greeks recognized & named forty-eight constellations. Many of these constellations were also recognized by the Arabs, Egyptians, & the Babylonian. Constellations are actually totally imaginary. Over the course of thousands of year’s poets, farmers, and sky watching astronomers have made them up. Constellations where created to differentiate star patterns into recognizable placements. In the past when technology had not been readily available the only other way to remember these patterns were to associate them with memorisable myths, or religion based fables. Scientists use schematic drawings called "star maps" to quickly tell what they are looking at as seen in figure one.

//Figure one//

The names of the constellations are given in Latin, because Latin was once the language of learning. For convenience the names used by the Greeks, Egyptians, & other people were translated into Latin. The ancients named the constellations after a certain figure that it seemed to form in the sky. They refer to mythological or legendary men, women, & animals.  For example, the constellation Orion was an ancient Greek hunter and warrior and the constellation resembles this figure, with a club and a shield, and a sword dangling from his belt. H e is depicted standing next to the river Erdanus with his two hunting dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor fighting Taurus the bull.

  Other constellations like the big dipper are known throughout the world. The big dipper is told in many stories and is most renouned of all the constellations. The Big Dipper is a group of seven bright stars, 3 which form a handle and 4 which form a bowl. The Big Dipper is not actually a constellation but is part of the constellation Ursa Major, or Great Bear.

Andromeda is a constellation located in the northern sky. It is named after Andromeda the princess of a mythological kingdom in Greek mythology.  T hen the constellation can be interpreted as a stick-figure woman with a prominent belt, and an arm with something long attached to it, giving the appearance of a female warrior holding a sword.

Here is another "star map". As you can see, it has visuals of all of the 88 constellations and where they stand in the night sky. Another use of constellations was to tell what season was approaching. For example, Orion is only visible in the northern hemisphere at night during winter in the northern area of the sky. The constellation Scorpius is only visible in the summer. The same is said fot the other seasons, as we can only see the constellation Leo in the spring, and pegasus in the fall. Constellations were one of the most useful "discoveries" that our past has ever seen. Here you can see the visual signs of the horoscope. eg. leo, scorpio etc. 
 * BIBLIOGRAPHY**

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