Ancient cultures were keen observers of the sky at night. The Middle East was the birthplace of astronomy, influencing Greek astronomical works. Although, observation of the stars by mankind had happened for millennia.
The ancients noticed that certain stars when grouped appeared to form recognisable patterns or shapes that represented characters from myths or legends and historical events. So, they linked these stars together to form a pattern. Ancients also studied the motion of the stars in the night sky so they knew when it was time to plant crops and harvest them; in effect a calendar.
Nowadays, astronomers have a better understanding of what a star is and its distance. They still use many of the names given to stars and constellations centuries ago.
On cloud-free nights, the sky over the UK reveals what ancient astronomers saw. They likely saw more, even without telescopes, as they had no problem with light pollution.
Pictured below there are twenty named star groupings. The images are not to scale. These groupings have common names. Can you name them? To help, the names you can match up with are listed below.
Hover your mouse pointer over the grey box below an image to reveal the answer.
To download an individual image, right-click on the enlarged picture you want and select “Save image as”. This will open a save dialog where you can save the file to your computer. You can use any of the images for your quizzes, but not re-publish them, in any format. The picture’s filename is its answer.
| Aquarius | Aries | Cancer | Canis major (The Great Dog) | Capricorn | Cassiopeia | Centaurus |
| Lyra, the Lyre | Orion (The Hunter) | Sagittarius | Taurus (The Bull) | The Plough (part of Ursa Major) | Virgo | |
| Cetus (The Whale) | Crux | Cygnus (The Swan) | Gemini | Leo | Libra, the Scales | Little Bear (Ursa Minor) |
