Astronomy and Astrophysics

Constellations are patterns of stars in the sky. Ancient astronomers found pictures in the stars and used them to tell stories, and to remember their myths. Explorers and sailors used them to navigate by. Ancient people used them to predict rainy seasons, and to know when to plant and when to harvest.

However, now that we know that we can tell how far away a star is by using parallax, and we have a description of where the star is located in the night sky, we can use that to construct x, y, and z coordinates for the stars, and make a 3-D map of a constellation.

Using the Constellation Lesson, find the x, y, and z coordinates for the stars in either the Big Dipper or Orion. Use the web to find out the stars in the constellation, and find position and parallax from the SIMBAD database.

Once you have the coordinates, we will create a virtual reality style model of your constellation.