Week of May 10-16, 2020

Nearly every indigenous culture on Earth established its own unique set of constellations in their sky, but we in the West recognize those created primarily by the Greeks and early European explorers and astronomers.

To produce a more standardized system for use around the world, however, the International Astronomical Union in 1922 formally divided the heavens into 88 separate areas of varying shapes and sizes — each called a "constellation." Among these, we find represented 29 objects, 42 animals, 16 people and one half-animal, half-human (a centaur).

It's remarkable that after dark at this time of year, we can see in our northwestern sky nearly one-fifth of all the animal constellations that exist! But before you frustrate yourself searching for those that create actual pictures, remember my frequent admonition: Constellations look no more like their namesakes than the George Washington Bridge looks like the father of our country. So, with this in mind, let's head outdoors this week to see if we can locate all eight of these celestial groupings.

Surely, the most famous are the stars of Ursa Major, the great bear. More easily recognized as the Big Dipper, this group now stands high in the northern sky just after dark to viewers in midnorthern latitudes. To its south lies the large constellation of Leo, the lion. And between Leo and Ursa Major lies the much tinier Leo Minor, the little lion. To me, it just looks like a simple arrowhead.

To the Big Dipper's north, we find Ursa Minor, the little bear, more commonly seen as the Little Dipper. The end of its tail (or handle) is marked by Polaris, the North Star. Finding Polaris isn't difficult; simply follow the two stars at the end of the Big Dipper's bowl, and they'll point right toward it.

And winding its way partly between the big and little bears, we see the sinuous constellation of Draco, the dragon, a horrible creature from ancient Greek mythology that guarded a valuable sacred spring.

If you had trouble finding these five constellations, get ready for a real challenge, because the remaining three are even tougher, partly because they're very faint and obscure and partly because some now lie quite low to the horizon.

Directly west of Ursa Major lies a string of stars known as Lynx, the ... well, uh ... lynx. This constellation, together with Leo and Leo Minor, make up all the cats represented in the heavens.

To the west of Lynx lies Cancer, the crab. Normally one of the faintest constellations in the heavens, its stars will be nearly obscured by its currently low altitude.

Finally, look to the lower right of Lynx, and if you have a low horizon to the northwest, you may spot Camelopardalis. This has to be one of the most obscure constellations in all the heavens. It was probably the 16th-century Dutch theologian, cartographer and astronomer Petrus Plancius who conjured this one up, though some believe it might have been named by German astronomer Jacob Bartsch who published Plancius' star maps in a 1624 constellation book.

Now, while its name suggests that this constellation might represent a camel, it's not. It's a giraffe!

The International Astronomical Union in 1922 formally divided the heavens into 88 separate areas.

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