Constellations

1) Over view
What they represent, how many, sizes, North, Zodiac and South,
Milky Way runs through.


From the earliest civilization, observers have named groups of stars according to their shape, 
often imagined as heroes, animals or objets of Myth and legend.

Current names are based on 3rd century BC Greek mythology, and later by Ptolemy who notes 
48 constellations.

Southern constellations were named much later in the 17th century by Mayer and Hevelius. 
Most are names of birds or scientific instruments like Tucan, Octant, Sectant, and microscope.

Constellation boundaries were imprecise for a long time. At the end of the 19th century there 
were 100

In 1922 the IAU revised all boundaries are removed some constellations. The official number is 
now 88

From out latitude a number of constellations are circumpolar.

These are: 	Umi, Uma, Ceph, Cass, Cam, Dra, Per, Lac, Lnx
Parts of 	Her, Lyra,  Cyg, And,  Aug can also be seen all year round,   

The southern most 1st magnitude star seen form this latitude is Formalhaut in Pisces Austrinus
Below and to the right of Canis Major is the constellation of COLUMBIA (The dove)
And in the spring the stars of centaurus just pop above the horizon

The largest area is Hydra - 1302 sq deg
2nd  	Virgo		    1294
3rd 	Ursa Major	    1279


88th	Equuleus	71
89th	Crux		68

There are 13  Zodical constellation

Aries Taurus, Gemini, cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, (Ophuchus) Sagittarius,  Capricorn, 
Aquarius, Pisces 

Milkey Way runs  throgh Cas, Per Aur,  down into Canis Major, through the southern sky,
up though Scorpio, Sag,  Aquila and Cygnus.


2) Identification.

Starting points are the well known ones - Ursa Major, Cassiopeia,Orion.	
Summer Triangle (Cygnus)

Changes during the year are caused by the Earth orbiting the Sun.

Patterns in the South at Midnight

December	Winter  	Taurus (pleides)  Orion,  Gemini, 

March		Spring 		Cancer,  Leo,  Virgo

June		Summer		Bootes,	Hercules,  Scorpio Cygnus, Lyra

September	Autumn, 	Andromda,  Pieces, Pises Austrinus