Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Let’s start with the Big Dipper, where is the Big dipper? Up there, there we go, right
there. We are going to start, we have the four points of the pot, we then have the handle,
and there’s our Big Dipper. Take the last two stars, we’re going to go five times
that distance to find the north star. There’s the North Star, is it the brightest one? No,
not very bright. North Star, Polaris, makes up the Little Dipper. The Little Dipper, the
handle is crooked, so it comes up and there’s the pot. It always looks like one dipper is
pouring into the other one. All of the stars will appear to circle Polaris. So through
the course of the night, these stars are going to go this way, around Polaris. Go back to
the Big Dipper, notice that the Big Dipper becomes a great sign, if you can find that,
you can find a lot of other constellations. I’m going to take the handle of the Big
Dipper and I’m going to follow a real simple saying: “Follow the Arc to Arcturus.”
The Arcturus is the bright star right there. Arcturus is part of a constellation called
Boötes. Boötes is the herdsman, and Boötes, let’s see here, he comes up like this. Next
to the Little Dipper, we can jump over to the giant “W” in the sky – Queen Cassiopeia.
One more circum-polar constellation, he asked to see Draco the Dragon. If you can find the
Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, Draco cuts right between them. What I look for is I’m
going to look straight up and look for four stars that make a kite – those are the eyeballs.
Draco comes down, up, and around right through it. All of these constellations can be seen
any night of the year.