Learning about Constellations Video Lecture - Class 8

oh hey guys it's just gotten dark here
so we're spending a little time before
bed looking at the night sky and
sometimes we like to look up at the
stars and make up funny stories about
the things that we see have you ever
looked up at the clouds during the day
and thought about what they looked like
a duck and alligator a shark or even a
bear well people do the same thing with
the Stars and they've done so for
thousands of years I'm sure you've
noticed on a nice clear night how there
are so many stars in the sky more than
you can probably count some stars look
brighter to us than others and the
darker it is where you live like if
you're really far from the lights of a
city the more stars you can see and for
a long time people have seen pictures
among certain groups of stars just like
connect-the-dot these groups of stars
are sometimes called constellations and
scientists still use the names of these
constellations to describe different
parts of the night sky probably the most
famous group of stars that's easiest to
find is the Big Dipper if you live in
the Northern Hemisphere you can spot it
pretty easily in the northern part of
the sky it's made of seven bright stars
and if you connect the dots of those
stars you'll see a big squarish bowl
with a really long handle sticking out
of it in the United States some people
thought the Stars look like a big ladle
or spoon so they called it the Big
Dipper but just like the fluffy clouds
we're talking about groups of stars can
look different to different people in
Great Britain for example the same seven
stars are called the plough because they
were thought to look like a farmer's
plough and people in Germany thought it
looked like a wagon and those same stars
also reminded lots of ancient people of
a giant bear scientists today consider
the Big Dipper to be part of a bigger
constellation that they call Ursa Major
for Great Bear the Big Dipper is easiest
to find in the summer when it's higher
in the sky but in the winter you should
look for another famous constellation
Orion the first part that you'll
probably see are the three bright stars
in a row in ancient Greece stargazers
thought that they looked like the belt
of a great hunter they thought the two
bright stars above it would be where his
shoulders were and the two stars below
it his likes the more people looked the
more other things they saw and if you
use your imagination and follow the
stars from one of his shoulders you can
see another group of stars like he's
holding on
something like a shield and what are
those fuzzy lights hanging from his belt
kind of looks like a sword there's a lot
more to Orion than just a few stars
that's why when astronomers talk about
constellations they don't just mean the
few stars that might look like something
they also mean all of the other stuff in
that part of the night sky so part of
what gives
Orion sword its fuzzy brightness is a
distant cloud of gas and dust called the
Orion Nebula that's part of the Orion
constellation - so what if you live in
the southern hemisphere then keep your
eyes open for the crux the smallest of
the constellations it's still pretty
easy to find especially in the winter
because of the 4 bright stars that make
a cross which is what its name means the
southern hemisphere is also a great
place to find Sagittarius a
constellation that reminded ancient
Greeks of a creature that was part man
part horse shooting an arrow for most
people the easiest way to find it is to
look for the eight stars that make this
shape to me it looks more like a teapot
but that's why it's fun to make up
stories so the next time that you're
outside and it's dark look up and see if
you can find any of these constellations
or other groups of stars or you could
just make up your own okay squeaks let's
find something that looks like a rat see
you next time on scishow kids
you