Do you know your Constellation?
Most people kow their zodiac sign. I know that mine is Cancer. But have you ever seen your constellation in the sky? I guess many people haven’t: I’m taking a science class with about eighty other students and none of us have ever seen our constellation in the sky.
In that class I learned that the opposite was true about forty years ago; people didn’t know their zodiac sign but they did know the constellations. I think it shows how much our lives have changed. Today, there is much information available all around us, but in many cases it is not connected to the real world. Many years ago, however, there was less infomation than now, but people knew many things about the real world and their lives. Maybe they also had more time to look up to the stars.
Although my constellation, the Cancer, doesn’t show now, I’m sure I’ll find it some day.
Comments
I’ve never seen the constellation for my star sign / astrological sign (Libra). I really don’t like the idea that a few points of light have “control” of my fate / destiny, so I don’t particularly care for astrology, and I’ve never even tried to find “the scales” before.
On the other hand, I quite enjoy staring at stars on a clear, dark night. I grew up in a rural part of California, and we had lots of clear dark nights (where it would be so dark that you couldn’t see your hand if you held it right in front of your face) with very bright stars. I preferred to find my own patterns and shapes among the stars, and I also enjoyed spotting satellites and looking for shooting stars.
I would like to stargaze in Japan, but I don’t. Is that because I am too busy and there is too much other information available? No. Rather, I find that in Japan it is often too cloudy, and, even when it is not too cloudy, the city lights (yes, even the city lights of Tsu!) only let the brighter stars shine through.
As I live in a rural area near Ise, I can see the stars on relatively dark night (not as dark as the sky that Dylan mentioned, though). The only constellations I can recognize are Orion and Cassiopeia in the winter sky.
When I was a elementary school child, my teacher suggested we should find a constellation so that we’ll be sure to recognize it forever in the future. As he said, I can see them every winter and feel the change of season.
Masami-san, I’ve never seen my constellation, Aquarius. But I’ve liked to see the sky since I was a child, and I sometimes look up. To tell the truth, when I was a high school student, I belonged to the astronomy club.
Then, I say thank you!! Because I didn’t know ‘Cancer’ means one of the zodiac signs, Crab.
I only recognise the Big Dipper and Orion. I have never seen my sign.
City lights make it hard for me to see the stars, but on warm summer nights I love going to the park (where there are fewer lights) to stare at the sky. As my eyes adjust to the darkness I can see more and more stars.
About Big Dipper, I know that it is seen around the polestar. Once I tried findin it, but I couldn’t. I’ll try again in some day.
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Dad showed me a few constellations in the sky when I was a kid, which, however, didn’t include my zodiac sign.
Astronomy was never part of the science classes I took in school, and, more generally, it doesn’t seem to rank anywhere near the top of science curricula, so people’s knowledge of constellations tends to be a bit limited.
Divorced from science, astrology became more popular in the last few decades, along with a whole raft of other esoterical and new-agey pursuits. That probably accounts for the fact that people know their zodiac signs but not the star constellations that go with them.