Matter Masters Astronomy

What is a constellation? Well, really nothing! A constellation is a picture made in the sky by "connecting the dots," or points of light from the stars. The stars are not really close together, and some may be much closer to Earth than others. People made up the constellations to be able to recognize what they were looking at or to help navigate. They made stories up to go along with the pictures, or more correctly, took stories they already had and added pictures and parts to the story that involved how they may have ended up in the "heavens."

Some constellations can only be seen from the northern hemisphere, and others only from the southern hemisphere. The star patterns seem to twist or turn around in the sky throughout the night...but it is not really the stars moving, but the Earth rotating.

The Zodiac Constellations make their appearance during certain times of the year, and they use the same path as the sun and the planets. This is why you were "born under the sign" of the zodiac...a time when that sign was visible in sky.

Zodiac Constellation	Mythological Identity	Appearance and Notes	Season in Evening Sky
Pisces (Pie-seez) February 19 - March 20	Two fish. Venus and her son Cupid escaped from Typhon by swimming through the sea as two fish.	Near Pegasus and Andromeda. Red star TX Piscium varies in brightness.	Fall
Aries (Air-eez) March 21 - April 19	Ram with Golden Fleece, could fly through the air.	A small constellation, with only two easily-visible stars.	Winter
Taurus (Tore-us) April 20 - May 20	Bull. Babylonian constellation. Jupiter turned himself into a bull to carry off Europa, daughter of the King of Crete.	Reddish eye the star Aldebaran, one vertex of the Winter Hexagon, in a V-shaped grouping called the Hyades. Look at Pleiades, a jewel-box of stars, with binoculars.	Winter
Gemini (Jem-eh-ni) May 21 - June 20	Twin brothers. Protectors of ships and sailors, who swore oaths by them: "By Jiminy!"	Look for the two bright stars, Castor and Pollux which together form one vertex of the Winter Hexagon.	Winter
Cancer (Kan-ser) June 21 - July 22	Crab, sent by Juno to kill Hercules, who squashed it with his foot.	Faint stars. Look with binoculars for the Beehive star cluster, faintly visible to the naked eye.	Spring
Leo (Lee-oh) July 23 - August 22	Lion. Prehistoric constellation, often associated with royalty.	Look for sickle-shaped or backward-question-mark asterism. Bright star Regulus.	Spring
Virgo (Vir-go) August 23 - September 22	Maiden, goddess of farms and harvest, holding a shock of wheat.	Second-largest constellation in sky. Bright star Spica. Cluster of galaxies. Bright quasar.	Spring
Libra (Lee-brah) September 23 - October 22	Scales (balance), because the Sun was in Libra during the autumn equinox when the Romans chopped off the claws of Scorpius to create this constellation.	Two faint stars. Includes the traditional claws of Scorpius. Alpha-Librae is a double-star viewable by binoculars.	Spring
Scorpius (Scor-pee-us) October 23 - November 21	Scorpion sent by Gaia to kill Orion when Orion boasted he would slay all the animals of the Earth; now Orion and Scorpius circle each other on opposite sides of the sky.	Fish-hook to Polynesians; rises right out of water in the SE in the summer. Bright star Antares, the heart of the Scorpion, rivals Mars in its reddish tint.	Summer
Sagittarius (Saj-eh-tair-ee-us) November 22 - December 21	The Archer, a centaur (half man and half horse) archer named Chiron, shooting an arrow.	Look for teapot asterism. In direction of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, rich with many stars. Try binoculars.	Summer
Capricorn (Kap-rih-corn) December 22 - January 19	Sea Goat. Pan only partly succeeded in turning himself from a goat into a fish.	Dim stars. Look for large laughing mouth.	Fall
Aquarius (Ah-kwair-ee-us) January 20 - February 18	Water Carrier. Babylonian constellation.	Water jar asterism. Near Pegasus.