SUMNER: I'm now going to go away and learn all of the other constellations in the night sky. SMITH: It looks like a W or perhaps an M, depending on where it is in the sky. SUMNER: Is there another easy one to recognize? SMITH: Another famous one is just above us, actually- Cassiopeia. In the days before GPS and radar, people would use this to navigate at night- sailors, things like that yeah. SUMNER: So would people have used that to navigate, then? SMITH: Yeah, absolutely. So if you measure the angle between the horizon and the North Star, and you can work out how far north you are. And if you have a look at the pan part, if you look to the top right star, if you carry on up, and that's the North Star that's directly above the North Pole. So if Orion's over there, then directly on the other side, you can look for Ursa Major, or the Plow, which is a small part of that, also known as the Big Dipper. SUMNER: So what are other really obvious constellations that people could go out and look for? SMITH: OK. SUMNER: Well, I know Orion the Hunter, who's over there. So they'd look up and see formations, and then they'd make a name and a little bit of a story around it, really, based on their gods or different things like that. And it's just a way of identifying patterns in the sky. And some of the other ancient civilizations have also named them. They were named during the Greek- ancient Greek ages. But what exactly is a constellation? PHILLIPA SMITH: Well, a constellation is just a group of stars, really. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.
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