What Star?

Book excerpt: Have you ever looked up into the sky and thought about the names of star groupings and where they came from? Through glossy pages situated in an easy-to-read layout, What Star gives in-depth explanations of star patterns and their history. Constellations are groupings of stars that resemble a pattern when an observer looks up into the night sky. Ancient civilizations designated 88 constellations, giving them names corresponding to mythological objects or individuals that they felt the star patterns represented. Almost all the constellations have some legend associated with them. Most of these are mythological figures who were given a place in the sky by Greek gods. These include King Cepheus, his wife Cassiopeia, and daughter Andromeda, Hercules, Perseus, Pegasus, and more. The International Astronomical Union began to recognize these 88 constellations in 1922, based on the 48 listed by Ptolemy in his Almagest, written in the 2nd century. Ptolemyâ??s catalogue is informed by Exodus of Cnidus, a Greek astronomer of the 4th century BC who introduced early Babylonian astronomy to the Hellenistic culture. What Star gives an easy reference to each constellation in our nightâ??s sky, both historical constellations and more modern constellations, their location, their form, their history and the mythology surrounding them.