Quote:
On 2002-09-10 13:26, aurorae wrote:
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.
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I disagree. Just because someone calls the object "Delta Pavonis" or the "Andromeda Galaxy" doesn't mean the constellations they are named for are important. Perhaps for those studying the history behind naming conventions it might be of some interest, but practically who cares what the shapes of these associated areas on the sky are named?
IMHO, the asterisms that are not constellations (Big Dipper, Great Square, the teapot, the Summer Triangle) are just as useful if not MORE useful than the constellations themselves.
It would be interesting to consider what are the most important objects for an astronomically literate person to be able to identify, even in heavily light polluted areas...
Northern hemisphere for now, a short and incomplete list for me would be:
Big Dipper
Little Dipper
polaris
Orion
Cassiopeia
The Summer Triangle (Vega, Deneb, and Altair)
The Greate Square
The Pleiades
Arcturus
Castor and Pollux
Hercules
Bootes
Sirius
Andromeda Galaxy
the Milky Way
Of course many of these objects would be hard to pick out in light polluted skies. Any other nominations for useful asterisms, objects, or constellations to be able to "point" to?