Imagining familiar images in the sky has always been an easy way to track the annual progress of the stars. Around the second century C.E., the Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy listed 48 “official” ...

Peering into the past, we find that our ancestors held a surprisingly advanced understanding of the stars and constellations. Their knowledge, as revealed in ancient texts, often rivals our modern ...

Beginner stargazers may think it’s tough to find our way around the night sky, with so many stars and constellations to try to identify. But during weeks like this when the moon is bright, only the ...

If you look at any star atlas published before 1930, you will see what appear to be random lines defining the constellations. Before this date, constellation boundaries had not been formalized. Modern ...

Constellations through the ages -- Constellations of the zodiac -- An astronomy primer -- Watching the skies -- How this book is organized -- The greek alphabet -- Map of the northern sky -- Map of ...

Have you ever noticed a constellation while driving at night and wondered what it was? Or looked up after dark and wondered what you were looking at? The night sky appears is constantly changing, ...

At SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park on Wednesday morning, researchers focused a powerful X-ray machine on pages of parchment from a medieval desert monastery, looking to reveal ...

Spotting Orion or Ursa Major is a highlight of any camping trip, but Greek constellations aren’t the only stories scattered among the stars. For millennia, Native Americans have used the cosmos for ...

Who made the present-day official outlines of the 88 constellations and why do they contain so many zigzags? Caitlin McAlister Cottonwood, Arizona If you look at any star atlas published before 1930, ...