Basic constellation map of starry sky in summer

Eagle (concerned about Altair) and Lyra (concerned about Vega)

In different seasons, the observed constellations are different.

In summer, you will see a bright white band in the sky. This band of light is called the Milky Way, commonly known as Tianhe. The Milky Way is made up of many stars far away from us. Because these stars are too far away, our eyes can't distinguish the stars one by one. They look white.

On the east bank of the Milky Way, there is a bright star. On both sides of this bright star, there are two darker stars, and the three stars form a polar shape. This bright star is called Altair.

On the west bank of the Milky Way, across the river from Altair, there is a particularly conspicuous bright star that emits white light, and there are four relatively dark stars near this bright star, forming a spindle shape. This bright star is called Vega.

Altair belongs to the eagle and Vega belongs to Lyra. The well-known story of Cowherd and Weaver Girl in China is based on these two stars.

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1. constellation

In order to understand the starry sky, the Babylonians divided the celestial sphere into many regions, called "constellations". Many names of constellations are animal names or characters in Greek mythology. At present, there are 88 constellations in the world, all developed from ancient Greek constellations. Each constellation can be identified by the special distribution of bright stars in it.

Step 2 be important

The brightness of celestial bodies is divided and described by magnitude. People divide the stars visible to the naked eye into several grades. The brighter the star, the smaller the magnitude. Stars barely visible to the naked eye are class 6. The magnitude of Sirius is-1.4, the moon is-12.7, and the sun is -26.7. To see stars darker than level 6, you need to use a telescope. The larger the aperture of the telescope, the more dark stars you can see.