Are the stars really shifting? Is this the first time to ever happen?

Question

I heard that the star map will no longer be correct after a few years is this true?? Does this have anything to do with the bees?

Answer 1

The stars are in constant motion... some faster than others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_motion

Also, the coordinates for the stars, as viewed from Earth, are constantly changing due to Precession.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession_%28astronomy%29

Star charts take into account these motions... the charts are based on 50 year "epochs". We are currently using the J2000 epoch charts... the previous epoch was J1950 and the next is epoch J2050, of course.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J2000#J2000.0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epoch_%28astronomy%29

Answer 2

Every star is in motion. The movement can be be broken into two component parts; radial motion, which is the motion along the line of sight, and proper motion, which is the motion at right angles to the line of sight.
Radial motion can me measured by the Doppler Effect, the shifting of spectral lines, while proper motion can be measured by the shift of the stars apparent angular position in th sky.
Due to the great distances involved the angular movement is small but measurable. After a "few years" the effect is not noticable enough to make star maps invalid.

Answer 3

to put it in simple terms: stars really do move... but it isnt in large fast or significant speeds. now that its been a while, they've become too far from where they were tallied. its perfectly normal. :)