Polaris, also known as the North Star, is located in the constellation Ursa Minor and helps navigators determine their northern location. It appears nearly motionless while other stars appear to rotate around it. Ancient cultures used constellations to tell stories and track the seasons, informing practices like agriculture. Today, astronomers use constellations to identify and locate stars through their positions within constellations and assigned Greek letter names. Constellations along the ecliptic path of the sun comprise the 13 signs of the zodiac, though astrological signs differ from the actual constellations they represent.

1. Lesson 3
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5. *

6. *
*Polaris, commonly known as
the North Star, is the
brightest star in the
constellation Ursa Minor
(Little Dipper). It is very
close to the North Celestial
Pole, making it the current
northern pole star.
*Polaris stands almost
motionless in the sky and all
the stars of the Northern
sky appear to rotate around
it.

7. * In the Philippines, to locate Polaris, face North and
locate the Big Dipper. Two stars (Merak and Dubhe) in
the Big Dipper are called pointer stars because they
seem to point to Polaris.

8. *
*While the rotation of the Earth on its axis caused the
apparent nightly movement of the stars across the
sky, the revolution is responsible for the fact that we
can see different parts of the sky at different parts
of the year.
*An observer from Earth will be able to see the stars
on the night side. The stars on the same side as the
sun cannot be seen because sunlight overpowers all
the starlights.

9. *
*During summer, in the Philippines, the
constellations of Orion and Taurus are not visible
at night. They will be visible again as the cold
season begin. During that time, Scorpius will not
be seen in the night sky.
*As the Earth revolves around its orbit, the stars
that were concealed by the bright light of the Sun
in the previous months will appear in the night
sky.

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23. *
*The first use for constellations was probably religious. People
thought that the gods lived in the heavens and that they created
them. Many cultures believed that the positions of the stars were
their God's way of telling stories. So it seemed natural to
recognize patterns in the sky, give them names, and tell stories
about them. We inherited the names for our constellations from
the Greeks. And they named the constellations after their
mythological heroes and legends. So behind every constellation
there is a story. For example, to the ancient Greeks, Orion was a
great hunter. He was the son of Neptune (god of the sea). But the
same stars were considered to depict Osiris by the Egyptians.
Each different culture developed their own interpretation.

24. *
*While constellations were associated with religion, they also
have practical uses. Before the calendars, people had no
way of determining when to sow or harvest except by
looking at these patterns in the sky. Ancient people
developed a way to remember the patterns by giving them
names and stories.

25. *
*For example, in the northern hemisphere, the constellation
Orion indicates the coming of cold season. The
constellations made it easier for them to recognize and
interpret patterns in the sky. For example, Gemini is seen in
the Philippines during the months of April and May. Farmers
interpreted the appearance of Gemini as the end of the
planting season and it signified rich harvest.

26. *

27. *Table 1: Stars and Constellations Used by
Matigsalug Manobo of Bukidnon

28. *Table 1: Stars and Constellations Used by
Matigsalug Manobo of Bukidnon

29. * Illustration of constellation used by Matigsalug Manobo of Bukidnon

30. * Illustration of constellation used by Matigsalug Manobo of Bukidnon

31. * Illustration of constellation used by Matigsalug Manobo of Bukidnon

32. *
*Another use of constellations was in
navigation. The Polaris is widely used in
navigation because it does not change its
position at any time of the night or year. Also,
one can figure out his/her latitude just by
looking at how high Polaris appears in the night
sky. This allowed sailors to find their way as
they sail across the seas.

33. *The constellations are used today by astronomers to
determine the location and name of the stars. When
astronomers go to conferences they like to share their
research with others. And usually they will want to tell
someone which stars or objects they may be looking at. If they
just give the coordinates (numbers) the other person is not
likely to have an immediate idea of where the star is located
in the sky. But if you say that the star's name is Alpha Tau then
you will know that is the brightest star in the Taurus
constellation. The stars are named based on the constellation
they are in (all stars are in some constellation). The naming
goes from brightest to dimmest star and is designated by the
Greek alphabet. For example Beta Ori is the second brightest
star in Orion (also called Rigel).

34. * The sun, the moon, and the planets
travel on a set path through the sky
known as the ecliptic as the Earth
rotates. The list of 13 constellations
they pass through are known as the
stars of the Zodiac. The Zodiac
constellations' names are:
1. Aries
2. Taurus
3. Gemini
4. Cancer
5. Leo
6. Virgo
7. Libra
8. Scorpio
9. Sagittarius
10. Capricorn
11. Aquarius
12. Pisces
13. Ophiuchus (The name of this large
constellation means “serpent-bearer” in
Greek. The ancient astronomer Ptolemy
included Ophiuchus in his list of 48
constellations. (It used to be referred to as
Serpentarius, which has the same
meaning.) It is still one of the 88 modern
constellations.
*

35. *In astronomy, the zodiacal constellations are a
convenient way of marking the ecliptic (the
Sun's path across the sky) and the path of the
moon and planets along the ecliptic. Modern
astronomy still uses tropical coordinates for
predicting the positions the Sun, Moon, and
planets, except longitude in the ecliptic
coordinate system is numbered from 0° to
360°, not 0° to 30° within each sign.

36. *Astrologers use 12 of these constellations as signs of
the Zodiac, omitting Ophiuchus, to make predictions.
Unlike astronomy, astrology is not a science. Signs
differ from constellations, bearing only a loose
reference to one another. The sign of Pisces, for
instance, corresponds to the rise of the constellation
of Aquarius. Ironically, if you are born under a
particular sign, that constellation it is named for is not
visible at night. Instead, the sun is passing through it
around that time of year, making it a daytime
constellation that can't be seen.