It can be a little confusing to picture how the night sky changes as we orbit the Sun. This means that stargazers in Australia, for example, get a slightly different view of the sky and can see a few different constellations than those in the United States. The Northern Hemisphere is always pointing in a different direction than the Southern Hemisphere. Your location on Earth also determines what stars and constellations you see, and how high they appear to rise in the sky. The stars appear each night to move slightly west of where they were the night before. So, the night sky looks slightly different each night because Earth is in a different spot in its orbit. Our view into space through the night sky changes as we orbit. Earth orbits around the Sun once each year. The constellations you can see at night depend on the time of year. Pettit What constellations can you see in the night sky? This photo of the big dipper was taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station, but you can often see this group of stars from the ground, too! Credit: NASA/Donald R. This group of stars is called the 'big dipper.' If you trace a line between the stars, it looks like a ladle, or dipper, that you'd use to dip soup from a pot. Today, there are 88 officially recognized constellations. Over time, cultures around the world have had different names and numbers of constellations depending on what people thought they saw. But, if you were to draw lines in the sky between the stars like a dot-to-dot puzzle вЂ“ and use lots of imagination вЂ“ the picture would look like an object, animal, or person. Some stars in a constellation might be close while others are very far away. They are not connected to each other at all. A constellation is a group of stars that looks like a particular shape in the sky and has been given a name.

Astrology names