Astronomy Hacks

Know Your Constellations

Although stars are important, constellations place those stars in context: constellations are the things you can find in the sky most quickly. And once you’ve found the constellation that’s your point of reference, you can go on to find what you’re really looking for.

The first step in learning the night sky is to know the constellations. Before you attempt to identify constellations in the night sky, you should know the names of the constellations you are looking for and how to pronounce those names. There are 88 official constellations. Fortunately, you can learn them in groups because only some of them are visible, according to your latitude and the time of year.

Tip

The best way to learn the constellations is to buy a planisphere [Hack #6], which allows you to dial in the date and see an accurate representation of the night sky for that date. Alternatively, the monthly sky charts in Astronomy and Sky & Telescope magazines provide similar whole sky views for the current month.

Table 2-4 lists all 88 modern constellations, including the following data:

Name

The official name of the constellation, as assigned by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the only body authorized legally to name celestial objects.

Pronunciation

The pronunciations shown are those commonly used by amateur astronomers. Although many are incorrect, these pronunciations are used so commonly that there is little point in attempting to correct them. For example, Orion is correctly ...