what are some scientific questions about constellations?

Question

Preferably questions that can be answered by using the internet, encyclopedia or other sources.

Answer 1

1. What divides the constellations between northern constellations and southern constellations.
2. What are circumpolar constellations.
3. How many constellations are there and why?
4. Are all the stars in a constellation to the same distance from us?
5. Do constellations remain the same for ever?
6. What are the celestial coordinates right ascension and declination for?
7. What are constellations for?
8. What is the oldest constellation?
9. What is the largest constellation?

Answer 2

What did the constellations look like one million years ago?

What is meant by the circumpolar constellations?

Which constellations contains the most galaxies? (of course you know that all the constellations are much much closer than the closest galaxy outside of our Milky Way)

Which constellation has the richest field of the Milky Way in it?

Which constellation contains the North Star?

Were there any constellation names used many years ago but not anymore?

What is the name of constellations that have the sun, moon and planets go through them?

Referring to the last question, how many of these special constellations are there?

If you could make your own constellation, what would you name it? Draw some stars and then make some lines connect them in your design for a constellation

Answer 3

Most questions about constellations themselves are either about the mythology behind the name (e.g., why is it called "Leo the Lion"?) or about objects that can be found within the limits of the constellation.

Modern constellations separate the celestial sphere into 88 areas. The names of the constellations come from the divisions of the sky used by astronomers thousands of years ago. There was quite a mythology associated with the names and, often this was as a way to remember their shape and locations relative to each other.

It is sometimes difficult to determine which came first: the myth or the name of the contellation (some myths were created after-the-fact, once a constellation was named, as a kind of mnemonic).

So you can ask why a certain constellation is called that way (or, if you want to be very fancy, ask about all the modern constellations that were formed from the breakdown of the constellation Argo Navis); or you can ask about strange objects in certain constellations.

---

The study of mythology can be very scientific, just like ethymology. One can trace the evolution of myths and compare it with the evolution of science (or religion, or finance, or agriculture, or...)

Answer 4

How do different cultures see the constellations? The Maori, for example, have a very interesting story for the constellation we call Scorpius.

Answer 5

mythology isnt very scientific, so I would suggest "what is the largest constellation?" and "What is the smallest?"

"If the Milky Way was steam coming out of a teapot, which constellation would I be?"