• Question: How many known constellations are there?

    Asked by FelicityP to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 14 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      There are as many constellations are you really want there to be! They are just human inventions – patterns that people see in the stars, and give meaning to. Just like when you’re cloud spotting and say ‘oh hey! that one looks like a sheep!’. Ancient Greeks didn’t have Xboxes…
      In fact, over many thousands of years stars will move around the sky. It’s possible some constellations look different now than when they were named. Of ones that people have named and recorded there are 88. We won’t be able to see them all from our place on the Earth.

    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Also – some of the things people call constellations are actually technically called asterisms, something I only learnt recently.
      What people usually call Orion (the 10 stars), and the plough are both asterisms rather than constellations, although Orion is also a constellation. Just a bit of trivia!

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