1. U3A ASTRONOMY
CONSTELLATIONS

2. CONSTELLATIONS DATE BACK THOUSANDS OF YEARS WHEN MAN WANTED TO MAKE SENSE OF THERE PLACE IN NATURE.
TODAYS CONSTELLATIONS ARE BASED ON AN ANCIENT EGYTIAN TEXT TRANSLATED INTO LATIN
ASTRONOMER JOHAN BAYER RATIONALIZED THE NAMES SOME FROM GREEK , ARABIC OR OTHER LANGUAGES BECOMING WHAT WE RECOGNISE TODAY
ORION, PEGASUS AND SO ON.
NAVIGATORS ADDED MANY MORE CONSTELLATIONS AS MAN MOVED THROUGH TIME.
VIRGO IS THE LARGEST CONSTELLATION IN THE SKY HOME TO THOUSANDS OF GALAXIES AND HOME TO THE VIRGO CLUSTER OUR NEAREST GALAXY CLUSTER TO EARTH 50 MILLION LIGHT-YEARS DISTANT
VIRGO

3. URSA MINOR (little bear) OR THE PLOUGH FIND THE BLADE OF THE PLOUGH –FOLLOW THE HANDLE UPWARD TO A STAR 90DEGS ABOVE THE HORIZON (LITTLE DIPPER IN THE USA)

4. 12 common constellations there are 88 in total

5. REVIEW
THE CONSTELLATIONS WE SEE BY EYE IN THE NIGHT SKY ARE UNIQUE TO US
THIER STARS ARE MILLIONS OF LIGHT-YEARS APART IN DIFFERENT GALAXIES.
WE ARE PART OF THE MILKY WAY GALAXY.
WE CAN OBSERVE MILLIONS OF GALAXIES USING MODERN TELESCOPES ETC.
USING A PLANISPHERE WE CAN LOCATE THE CONSTELLATIONS

6. NEXT TIME HOW STARS ARE BORN