Category:Constellation: Difference between revisions

In the 1920s, the IAU has officially defined "constellations" as areas in the sky delimited by borders parallel to lines of right ascension and declination. In the modern sense, the term "constellation" only refers to these globally accepted areas.

As these definitions of areas were intentionally based upon the constellations described in Ptolemy's Almagest, these ancient lists of stars (registered under one headline in the ancient star catalogue) are also referred to as "constellations". Not all of them are easily recognizable star patterns, in particular the faint stars are not. For the sake of equalty, we should then also call all other cultural figures (e.g. the Babylonian ones, the Australian ones, the Chinese ones, the American ones...) "constellations", no matter whether they consist of stars or dark/bright clouds of the Milky Way. For instance, there are "Dark Constellations" in many indigenous cultures of the southern hemisphere.

That said, constellations are cultural figures of whatever type (religious figures like deities and daemons, animals/ flowers representing seasonal change, ...) projected to the sky by indigenous peoples all over the world.