How Stars Are Telling Directions Since Ancient Time?

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Shreya Jindal
Jun 10, 2019   •  36 views

How does a sky full of beautiful stars make you feel? You can watch it endlessly, right? These kind of curiosities have always sparked desire in mankind to know more and more about celestial world.

From thousands of years, people have been collecting information about everything they came across and see in space, and during this we have found many groups of stars which appear like an already known shape. These already known shapes are known as constellation. There are 88 constellations or may be more, known so far.

Viewing stars over and over again has lead to find patterns in the form of animals, hunter , direction or a big spoon. These patterns helped ancient people to know directions, specifically during new moon night when no other source of direction was possible.

Some of the commonly known constellations are-

UrsaMajor – It is a common group of stars which is seen in northern night sky during summer months at about 9:00p.m. This constellation has seven main members in it, arranged in an outline. It is also known as Vrihat Saptarshi and Great Bear.

Ursa Minor- There are two big and bright stars at the end of the big ladle of Ursa Major called pointers. These two stars help us to locate Ursa minor. It also have known as Laghu Saptarshi or the Small Bear.

Polaris- When we see between the two pointers for nearly five times, we can see a very bright star. This star is known as Polaris or pole star. Pole star is at the end of the tail of the Ursa minor.

Orion- Literal meaning of Orionis hunter, which can be seen in late winter evenings. It is a collection of eight member appearance.

Sirius- There are three stars in the centre of the Orion in narrow straight line. When we move a little in straight direction of these three stars, one of the brightest star in the night sky called sirius can be located. It is towards east of the Orion.

Cassiopea- It can be seen on northern side of the sky. It appears like a capital W or M during early winter nights.

Northern areas are best places to witness these patterns. Anywhere away from city pollution, crowded areas are best. Find some place with no light pollution and clear sky. You might also get a chance to see Northern Lights. People living in metropolitan cities get a very few chance to capture the site of a sky full of stars.

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