Astronomy 110 Observing Project

Step 1: Look at the various star charts for the different months that occur during this semester. Find a constellation that intrigues you. Remember, not every constellation found on these charts is going to be visible to you. Sometimes a nearby building, tree, or mountain may block your view of a particular constellation. Note that over the course of the semester some constellations will disappear from view in the West, while others will appear in the East. This ever-changing sky is due to the Earth's motion around the Sun. After you have decided on a constellation, find out the best time to observe it (note that if you stay up late, the constellations seen in the later months of the semester can be seen near midnight at the beginning of the semester). Go out and find your constellation! Write-up a description of how you found it, and answer the following questions:
What was the time and date that you first found your constellation?
Where was it? (Was it in the West, straight overhead or in the Southeast, etc. ?)
Which constellations are near it in the sky?

   Sky Charts: January - February - March - April - May - September - October - November - December
       Descriptions of each month's highlighted constellation.
       You may not use the highlighted constellations, but use the information here as an example.

Step 2: Research the mythology of your chosen constellation and the objects that can be seen in it. Note that some constellations are modern creations, and do not have a mythology associated with them. If you chose one of these less interesting star patterns, why not go back and choose another (generally larger!) constellation. Most of our constellation names and their mythologies come from the Greeks and Romans. But just about all of the major cultures on our planet have created constellation mythologies. See if you can find one of these alternative stories for the stars of your chosen constellation (one example is the constellation Orion described in the constellation highlight for February). Describe any interesting or famous objects located in your constellation, such as nebulae, star clusters, galaxies, or extra-solar planets. Do any of the stars in your constellation have interesting or unusual names with their own stories? Your mythology and object description write-up should be one page singlespaced or two pages doublespaced. Please list the references you used.

Step 3: Creating your own constellation. Without using a star map, create a constellation by just sitting back one evening and staring at the stars. Do you see any familiar patterns amongst the stars? As you have probably noticed, many of the classical constellations do not resemble the objects they are suppose to represent. They were created to honor an important character that occurred in one of that culture's stories (and sometimes history). So, your constellation doesn't have to be a perfect representation of the object it is suppose to represent.

Step 4: Creating and writing-up your constellation's mythology. The final step is to create a mythology to go with your new constellation. Name the brightest stars in your constellation (for example, maybe your constellation represents the 1994 Cowboys, and its brightest star is Troy Aikman). Your mythology write-up should be at least a page long (double spaced).