It struck me that people may not be able to recognise some of the constellations that make up the night sky, so I've uploaded this handy star map of the northern hemisphere, which should assist you, dear reader, in finding your way around the night sky.
Thank you & congratulations for your beautiful, helpful site...I will tell my students & colleagues about it so they, too, can set out on a starry voyage through this dreamlike universe.
ReplyDeleteI'm extremely glad to hear that you are finding this blog useful :) if you have any topics that you feel that I should discuss, please feel free to give me suggestions :)
ReplyDeleteIf you were to spot this while looking directly up, where would you have to be standing?
ReplyDeleteWell, In theory you would have to be standing directly on the north pole, at a latitude of 90 degrees north. But in reality, you can see these constellations from anywhere north of the equator.
DeleteI would personally recommend that you get a planisphere, as it will tell you (for your lattitude) which constellations (and with a little maths, planets) are where in the night sky where you are.
But if you want to save some money, you can use the above star guide just as easily, by finding a recognisable constellation such as orion or casseopeia and using those to help you figure out which constellation is which.
I hope you've found this helpful!!
Hi!
ReplyDeleteSorry if this is a really stupid question, but how do you interpret the months on this map? I'm from central europe and cassiopeia seems to be north east-ish but on this map it's in the middle.
Thanks :)
Don't worry, its a perfectly understandable question, and The answer lies in a Planisphere, which is where I got these star maps from. A planisphere has several layers, which rotate, to tell you which stars are visible in specific areas of the night sky each day, week and month of the year for specific latitudes. Sorry for the confusion :)
ReplyDeleteHi, how did the constellations form again? Sorry if I am bugging you at the moment.
ReplyDeleteWell, thats a rather complicated question :) in truth, the constellations are just patterns noticed by human beings, which helped them find their way around the night sky.
ReplyDeleteThe patterns are noticeable only because your human lifespans are so short (in comparison to the billions of years it takes our sun to orbit the galactic centre) that the stars we can see remain stationary against the backdrop of space.
As a result of the suns orbit around the galactic centre, the constellations we see will actually change over extremely long periods of time.
If we consider the constellation of the Plough (noted in star charts as part of Ursa Major) the so-called "pointer star" that we use to find the north star, wouldnt have pointed north when the dinosaurs roamed, and in several hundred thousand years, it will no longer point to the north star.
I hope that that was helpful, it can be a bit complicated to follow :)