Quote:
On 2002-09-08 21:34, JS Princeton wrote:
Constellations are for naked eye observing and aiming telescopes without the use of computers. Other than that, they really serve no purpose.
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Astronomy is a hodge-podge of various naming conventions that were developed by different people in different times. Many of them are still in use today, and many of them involve the constellation (not as a picture drawn from stars in the sky, but as a defined area of the celestial sphere).
So, constellations do have their uses, if only because old habits die hard.