You probably had to lie on your back on a summer day, look at the sky and see large clouds like fibrous pieces of cotton on it? Very often, they suddenly take the form of an animal or human faces. Well, constellations are the same imaginary figures that stars form in the sky.

The night sky is a canvas dotted with paintings from dots. People found paintings in the sky, dating back to ancient times.

Who first invented the constellations of stars

We know that the ancient Sumerians described the constellations 4 thousand years ago. Naturally, people saw in the sky what they wanted to see. Hunting tribes saw stars-made images of the wild animals they hunted. European sailors found constellations resembling a compass in shape. Indeed, scientists believe that the main area of ​​use of the constellations was to learn how to navigate the sea while swimming.

Legends and myths about the constellations

There is a legend that says that the wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Berenice (Veronica) offered her luxurious hair as a gift to the goddess Venus. But the hair was stolen from the halls of Venus and came to heaven as a constellation. In the summer, the constellation Veronica Hair can be seen in the Northern Hemisphere below the handle of the Big Dipper Bucket.

You could determine your location by finding a certain constellation in the sky in a particular place in the sky. The selection of certain patterns in the mass of stars helped in the study of the starry sky.Astronomers of the ancient world divided the sky into fields. Each area was divided into groups of stars called constellations. The constellations were given names; legends and myths developed about them.

Different peoples divided the stars into constellations in various ways. Some constellation stories were extremely bizarre. Here, for example, what picture the ancient Egyptians saw in the constellation surrounding the Big Dipper Bucket. They saw a bull, a man was lying next to him, a man was dragged along the ground by a hippo that walked on two legs and carried on the back of a crocodile.

How the big dipper appeared

Many constellation stories originate in Greek myths. Here is one of them. The goddess Juno was jealous of her husband Jupiter, the servant Callisto. To protect Callisto, Jupiter turned her into a bear. But this created a new problem. One day, Callisto's son went hunting and saw his mother. Thinking it was an ordinary bear, he raised his bow and took aim. Jupiter intervened and, in order to prevent the murder, turned the young man into a little bear cub. So, according to the myth, a big bear and a little bear appeared in the sky. Now these constellations are called Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

You have probably heard of the Orion archer with a star belt and the constellation Leo. But there are many other paintings in the sky: Chisel, Pump, Easel, Telescope and Microscope, there are Clock, Chameleon, Whale and Giraffe. And if you look carefully, you can find very exotic names, for example, Veronica's Hair.

Constellations and Modernity

On modern starry sky maps, the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are divided into 88 constellations. Scientists think that most of the "modern" constellations described around 2600 BC. Although it seems that the stars in the constellations are close to each other, this is an illusion. The stars of the constellations are separated by trillions of kilometers. But more distant stars can be brighter and look the same as closer, less bright stars. From Earth, we see the constellations flat.

Stars are like people, they are born and die. They are in constant motion. Therefore, over time, the shape of the constellations change. A million years ago, the current Big Dipper Bucket was not like a bucket, but a long spear. Perhaps in a million years, people will have to come up with new names for the constellations, because their shape will undoubtedly change. One last comment. Maybe, wherever you are, there is a planetary system with which our Sun looks like a small star, part of some constellation, in the outlines of which the inhabitants of a distant planet see the silhouette of their native exotic animal.