Points in the sky
When we look into the sky, we see thousands of little shinning points in the sky. They could be seen only at night. These shinning little points are stars that are bigger than our planet but they are so far that they seem to be only little points.
They are situated in the sky without any order. But people managed to find something in this disorder and to order them creating the constellations. These constellations received names and since then people investigate them referring stars to special constellations.
Since then millions of people got interested in stars and spent hours sitting under the night sky watching these little points and trying to find constellation that reminded wolf or constellation that reminded a bear.
Today vocabulary defines constellation as the areas that divide the sky to make the orientation in the night sky easier. In ancient times constellations were the characteristic figures made by the bright stars.
When we see two stars that are situated close to each other it doesn't mean they are really closely situated. They may have a distance of several kilometres from each other. Since ancient times people introduced the unique system of the stars' location and referred stars to special groups according to constellations.
During the history watchers found different number of constellations and their outlines but the origins of some ancient names of constellations are unknown till nowadays. Till 19th century people considered the groups of stars to be constellation but modern astronomy defines it as special areas because there are stars that refer to several constellations simultaneously. Moreover there were even stars that didn't refer to any constellations being lonely. In the beginning of 19th century the limits were made between the constellations that deleted the gaps between the constellations but still there was no exact definition of them and different astronomers gave their own definitions to them.
This site is dedicated to stars and the night sky covered with constellations. But first of all this site is about constellations, their history and the history of their investigations. You'll find out that there are some constellations that really remind animals, people, insects and objects by their form. So, enjoy reading and enjoy the night sky.