Peering into the past, we find that our ancestors held a surprisingly advanced understanding of the stars and constellations. Their knowledge, as revealed in ancient texts, often rivals our modern ...

If you look at any star atlas published before 1930, you will see what appear to be random lines defining the constellations. Before this date, constellation boundaries had not been formalized. Modern ...

Cleostratus was a truly pioneering Greek astronomer who lived on the small Aegean island of Tenedos in the 6th century BC.

At SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park on Wednesday morning, researchers focused a powerful X-ray machine on pages of parchment from a medieval desert monastery, looking to reveal ...

Constellations through the ages -- Constellations of the zodiac -- An astronomy primer -- Watching the skies -- How this book is organized -- The greek alphabet -- Map of the northern sky -- Map of ...

Astronomers use many mnemonics (memory tricks?) to remember stars and constellations. One of these that is visible right now is the Winter Circle. Follow Orion’s three belt stars southeast (down and ...

North: The Big Dipper is high in the sky. Following the two stars at the end of the cup to the next bright star, Polaris, or the North Star. The constellation Cassiopeia is down and to the left of ...

Who made the present-day official outlines of the 88 constellations and why do they contain so many zigzags? Caitlin McAlister Cottonwood, Arizona If you look at any star atlas published before 1930, ...