welcome back in this lesson we're going
to talk about the three different types
of constellations that exist out there
so just to review a constellation our
regions of the sky in which stars appear
to be grouped together and
constellations really are man-made
objects and it's something that we have
been using over thousands of years to
help us measure time so when we're
looking at this map right here all the
stars that are within this section
that's colored and purple is part of the
constellation called Pegasus but the
shape of Pegasus is also traced out here
as well and we see that across the sky
and the reason that constellations are
designated in this fashion is so when
astronomers throughout the world are
trying to look at a certain part of the
sky and identify something or discuss it
we're all looking at the same part there
are three types of constellations that
exist we have circumpolar constellations
so Dial constellations and seasonal ones
so let's go through what each one of
these mean the first one is called
circumpolar constellations and these are
ones that never disappear below the
horizon and can be seen all year round
now depending on where you are in the
globe you may see more or less of these
and also what your general location and
terrain is like for example I have a big
mountain that I live on and it covers a
good portion of the sky so some parts of
the year I can't always see exactly
these constellations but if I would move
I would be able to so let's break this
word down the word circum is Latin for
around and polar comes from the pole
star and all the circumpolar
constellations circle around the pole
star which is also named Polaris there
are five circumpolar constellations that
I'm going to really be going in detail
about one is Ursa Major the Great Bear
and I have that pictured right here but
you probably might be seeing the Big
Dipper within the bigger constellation
of Ursa Major we also have Ursa Minor
that is a circumpolar constellation and
this is known as the small bear and you
can see the shape of its Dipper is
slightly different than the Big Dipper
the handles go differently the
brightness is a difference the size is a
difference and this star right here is
Polaris so the last star in the handle
of Ursa Minor is known as Polaris so
these two I'll go into more detail about
a little bit later another circumpolar
constellation is known as Draco the
dragon and this constellation is
sandwiched in between Ursa Major and
Ursa Minor so up here we have this
trapezoid like head it comes down wraps
around and its tail is in between the
dippers our final two circumpolar
constellations I'd like to introduce you
to you are Cassiopeia the Queen which
has this w or M like shape depending
upon its orientation the sky and Cepheus
the king
this one looks somewhat like a house and
depending upon its orientation it can be
upside down or right side up
so these circumpolar constellations are
ones that you should be able to identify
all year round our next type of
constellation is called a zodiacal
constellation and these are ones in
which the ecliptic or the path of the
Sun passes through them and if we break
down this word a little bit more zodiac
os-- is Greek for circle of little
animals and if we look at the different
constellations you can see that many of
them are represented by different
animals and of course if you have ever
heard of the signs of the zodiac or you
follow any type of astrology whatsoever
you will notice that these are the signs
of the zodiac and at one time astronomy
and astrology were the
same thing but in the past 400 years and
since the Enlightenment period these two
things have deviated a normo longer the
same thing but as long as a son passes
through these different types of
constellations it's considered a
zodiacal constellation and in fact there
was a little bit of hubbub recently
about Ophiuchus which NASA named as the
13th sign of the zodiacal constellation
and there's actually a lot of
misconceptions about this but if you
look at this picture right here the Sun
does pass through this constellation so
in terms of astronomy it would be
considered as a diol constellation and
it takes up a good amount of real estate
in the sky it is a very large
constellation and it's one that was
created by the Greeks thousands of years
ago so this is not really a new
constellation but just one that nASA has
since acknowledged is a zodiacal
constellation and to review we have
aquarius pisces aries taurus gemini
cancer leo virgo libra Scorpio
Sagittarius and Capricornus and these
are all seen during different parts of
the year so they could also be
considered somewhat seasonal
constellations but they are named
zodiacal because these are the ones that
the Sun takes a path through if we take
a look at this star chart I can point
out for you where the ecliptic is or the
path of the Sun this green line right
here is a path the Sun travels in
throughout the year so any constellation
that passes within that green line is
considered a constellation and you can
probably recognize some of the names
such as Aquarius and Capricorn and so on
and so forth our final classification of
constellations ends with seasonal types
and these are ones that can be seen
during specific times of the year and
during particular seasons so for example
during
winter these are the type of
constellations you should be looking for
in the sky and as I take you through the
course we'll go into detail about which
constellations are winter summer fall
and spring so you can have a good
understanding of when you should be
looking for each type of constellation
and if you look at the star map overall
or a star chart and you think about
dividing it into four sections that you
can get a good idea of when you're going
to see different types of constellations
so here we have our summer
constellations down here are our spring
ones we have some winter ones here and
then these are the fall constellations
you would see so just to review there
are three types circumpolar ones that
you can see all year round you have
zodiacal ones in which the Sun passes
through and finally we have seasonal
ones they change with the different
types of seasons you are free to move on
to the next lesson I hope this was a
helpful lesson so you can understand how
the different constellations are
classified and how we break those down
thank you for watching and we'll see you
in the next lesson
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