Kn 6 Ls 4 Stargazing and Constellations

welcome to ckla knowledge six

lesson four star gazing and

constellations

our purpose for listening today is we

want to be able to describe the

appearance of the stars

let's see if we can identify major

constellations

and important

discoveries

listen carefully to understand the word

ancient

and the saying hit the nail on the head

astronomy is the study of outer space

let's think

whose job is it to study the stars

think in your head

it's an astronomer's job to study the

stars

think in your head

what do astronomers use to explore the

stars and outer space

astronomers use observatories

and telescopes

let's listen carefully

as we will learn about what ancient

people saw when they looked at the stars

ancient people saw outlines of pictures

in the way stars appeared in the night

sky

we still look for these pictures today

the first astronomers used science to

study the stars and learned many things

thousands of years ago people had no

telescopes or rocket ships

although people back then did not have

the tools and knowledge that we have

today they were just as curious about

the stars and other celestial bodies or

objects found in space

the ancient greeks arabs romans chinese

egyptians turks mayans babylonians and

countless others who lived a long long

time ago

all studied the stars

and tried to figure out what they were

and why they were there

although they did not know what the

stars were made of or how far away they

really were the ancient people named the

stars and mapped them out

they figured out which stars appeared in

the sky during certain times of the year

and even though thousands of years have

passed on earth the stars have basically

remained the same

in other words when you woke up at the

stars at night you are seeing very

nearly the same stars the ancient greeks

arabs and countless others saw as well

outer space has changed very little in

all those years

the ancient greeks believed that the

stars had been placed in the sky by the

gods in order to tell stories and teach

lessons

the greeks identified certain groups of

stars in the night sky that seemed to

form specific shapes

these shapes are called

constellations

that's the name for pictures they saw in

the stars

in the united states europe and many

other parts of the world we still call

the stars by the names that the ancient

greeks or arabs used so long ago

one of the first groups of stars that

young star gazers in the united states

learn about is also the easiest one to

spot the big dipper

looks like a giant soup ladle up in the

sky

the big dipper is made up of seven stars

the big dipper looks different in the

sky depending on the time of the year

sometimes the big dipper looks right

side up sometimes it looks upside down

and sometimes it appears to be standing

on its handle

that is not because the big dipper moves

but because the earth is rotating on its

axis and orbiting around the sun

the big dipper has a friend called the

little dipper

the little dipper also

contains seven stars the bright star at

the end of the handle is special

the bright star is called polaris or the

north star

unlike other celestial bodies the north

star basically stays in the same place

in the sky as we observe it from earth

always in the north

since ancient times people have relied

on this star to find their way in the

world knowing which way is north is the

first step to figuring out which

direction you are heading

christopher columbus and other sailors

used to look for the north star on

starry night out in the wide ocean

this picture shows one of the most

famous constellations of all

orion

ancient greeks told stories or myths

about orion a famous hunter

the constellation orion is known all

over the world

the constellation itself contains eight

main stars orion's belt

made up of the three stars in a row

across his body is the easiest to spot

as you can see it takes little

imagination to look at these stars and

see a hunter

the single star in the upper left is

imagined to be the beginning of a raised

arm

which is holding a club or a sword

with his other arm imagined

to extend from another single star he

holds a shield

according to one myth orion bragged he

was such a good hunter that he could

kill all the animals on earth the gods

decided to punish him by creating

scorpio a giant scorpion that orion

could not defeat

not far from the orion constellation is

taurus which shows the head and horns of

a mighty bull

it is often said that the hunter orion

is fighting the bull taurus

so according to the myths orion has a

tough time up there he is being chased

by a giant scorpion at the same time he

is fighting a giant bull

fortunately orion has a couple of

friends his two loyal hunting dogs

canis major and canis miner

these dogs follow orion through the sky

helping him fight taurus the bull

there are 88 major constellations and

most people around the world use the

same basic list

when these constellations were first

named most ancient people could only

guess what stars actually were

but we have learned that there is much

more to space than meets the eye

in fact sometimes when we look into

outer space our eyes can play tricks on

us

the first astronomers began using

mathematics and science to provide

different kinds of explanations than the

myths the ancient people told to

describe what they saw in the sky

rather than make up stories astronomers

developed hypothesis

or scientific explanations

based on facts they discovered about

outer space

for example

ancient people

saw the sun

rose on one side of the sky in the

morning and set on the other side of the

sky in the evening

seeing the sun's movement across the sky

caused ancient people to believe that

the sun moved while the earth stood

still

ancient greeks and arabs and in fact

most people in the world believed that

everything in the universe including the

sun and all the stars revolved around

the earth

it took thousands of years before anyone

believed that the opposite was true

that the earth in fact revolved around

the sun

this discovery was made by an early

astronomer named nicholas copernicus

copernicus was the first to use science

to explain that earth actually revolved

around the sun

unfortunately hardly anyone believed him

at the time

that was about 500 years ago

another astronomer named galileo came

after copernicus

and he believed what copernicus said

about the earth revolving around the sun

he invented telescopes that helped

astronomers prove that copernicus's

theory was true

although galileo did not invent the

first telescope he did invent very

powerful telescopes that helped him and

other astronomers make many important

discoveries about space for this reason

he is considered by many to be the

father of modern astronomy

since the time of these early

astronomers people have gained an

incredible amount of knowledge about the

stars and the universe and now use tools

like telescopes to expand that knowledge

each day

astronomers today use telescopes like

this one to study the stars and other

distant parts of outer space that

galileo may have never imagined

yet even as we have gained new knowledge

about outer space our understanding of

the stars is still built upon the

stories and knowledge passed on by

people for thousands of years

next time you find a constellation in

the sky

you will know that other stargazers have

been studying and telling stories about

that same group of stars for thousands

and thousands of years

what did you learn

take a minute and describe stars and

constellations to a friend

try these sentence starters

there is a group of stars called

or the stars are in the shape of

see if you can share important

information you learned today

see you back here next time