What constellation are we in?

[beamer3.6m]

Stupid question but what constellation is the Sun in?

Is that a really stupid question.

[SteveL]

Correct me if I am wrong, but constellations are human created collections/groups of stars that represent "objects/stuff" in the sky, and they are only valid from our vantage point from earth.... so the Sun isnt in any constellation as it is not stationary with respect to the view we have of the sky

[Macavity]

To the Proxima Centaurians, I seem to remember we're a bit to the LEFT of Cassiopeia.

[themos]

Correct me if I am wrong, but constellations are human created collections/groups of stars that represent "objects/stuff" in the sky, and they are only valid from our vantage point from earth.... so the Sun isnt in any constellation as it is not stationary with respect to the view we have of the sky

Isn't it a bit more complicated than that, in the sense that there are "groups" of nearby stars that travel together? The Sun, according to this, is too old to have an identifiable group but other stars do. It is very interesting to imagine how we might come to know which stars the Sun spent infancy with...

[Eclipse]

At this precise moment, April 18, as viewed from the Earth, the sun is in the constellation of Aries.

In two days time, it moves into Taurus.

[ianporter13]

sounds to much like crystal balls to me

I'm with SteveL on this one.

Ian

[thing]

Correct me if I am wrong, but constellations are human created collections/groups of stars that represent "objects/stuff" in the sky, and they are only valid from our vantage point from earth.... so the Sun isnt in any constellation as it is not stationary with respect to the view we have of the sky

Isn't it a bit more complicated than that, in the sense that there are "groups" of nearby stars that travel together? The Sun, according to this, is too old to have an identifiable group but other stars do. It is very interesting to imagine how we might come to know which stars the Sun spent infancy with...

What like the Sun's old school mates? When it was learning to be a fusionable ball of gas? Is that where it lost touch with it's mates?

'I'm going into Quantity Surveying'

'Cool, I'm going into Forensic Science'

'Well, I'm going to be this great big bright thing that you'll all orbit around'

'Er, yeah......Ok Sun, keep in touch........'

[Ant]

At this precise moment, April 18, as viewed from the Earth, the sun is in the constellation of Aries.

In two days time, it moves into Taurus.

Spot on that man, but that's the realms of Astrology...

[SteveL]

Isn't it a bit more complicated than that, in the sense that there are "groups" of nearby stars that travel together? The Sun, according to this, is too old to have an identifiable group but other stars do. It is very interesting to imagine how we might come to know which stars the Sun spent infancy with...

Thats will be "groups" of stars though and not constellations... the constellation Orion is not made up of a group of stars that are in any way linked, other than the fact that we see them as the constellation from our view point on earth.

[Ant]

It's all a line of sight thing.

Anyone who has Starry Night, can select a constellation and then add 10,000 years and see what happens...

Ant

[themos]

Some (probably most) constellations are indeed just line-of-sight groupings but Ursa Major has a lot of stars that are travelling together. What I found surprising is that almost all the naked-eye stars are young stars, about a tenth or less of the age of the Sun. The Sun has had enough time to get lost in the "field" of stars. If we were on a planet around Merope in M45, I think we'd be able to tell that we belonged in that group (but I've no idea if, over there, it appears as a constellation in the sky!).

[coatesg]

Well - the sun is in the Orion arm (so scientists think). The next arm "out" is the Perseus arm and the one inside is the Carina-Sagittarius arm. But this doesn't mean we are "in" the constellation Orion - the Orion arm is simply a name given to the arm we are in as it's the same arm several of the stars Orion contains is in.

The constellations are simply line of sight things as said above - humans originally saw patterns in the stars and named them - Ptolemy had 48 original constellations - and in 1930, the IAU fixed the boundaries to what they are today. There used to be a variety of constellations that no longer exist - one example was Argo Navis (the ship used by Jason and the Argonauts) which is the only one of Ptolemy's that no longer exists - this was split to become Puppis (the Poop), Carina (the keel), Vela (the sails) which were deemed "more manageable" than the enormous Argo!

[Vega]

I think this brings to light how hard it is to 'map' the stars three dimensionally. We can only map the stars in the milky way from our vantage point (Earth). The easiest way for the human brain to recognise them is to make patterns out of them (constellations) as viewed in a two dimentional sense. Once we start talking about our own stars position relative to all the others (in a three dimensional sense) things just get silly. I guess a computer could do it by mapping all the nearest stars and making a 3d map. Of course this renders the constellations useless. Goodness knows how we map things once we start traveling through space .... I need to sit down!

Matt

[Ant]

At this precise moment, April 18, as viewed from the Earth, the sun is in the constellation of Aries.

In two days time, it moves into Taurus.

Spot on that man, but that's the realms of Astrology...

I've also just had it pointed out to me that the astrological times of the sun moving from constellation to constellation are nearly a month out.

So on a purely line of site thing the sun is currently in Pisces (moving into Aries) - it'll be in Taurus in around a month.

Ant

[daz]

Does this mean I'm about to meet a tall dark stranger??

[Ant]

I watched one of the Simpson's halloween horror episodes last night.

Homer was reading the paper and for a laugh read his horrorscope and it said "You are going to die", Marge's horror scope said "your husband is going to die".

All in all a very funny episode. In the end died eating broccoli

Ant

[radioactive]

and my mother always insisted Broccoli was good for you! :shock:

[barkis]

We know the Constellations are mythical creations, and most of the stars that contribute to their shapes, are not gravitationally connected. Fortunately these shapes are useful to us as far as using them, and their stars, as pointers to objects we want to examine with the scope.

Of course I am only stating what most already know, and I don't want to sound like Loron.

All stars have proper motion in one direction or another, and our galaxy as a whole rotates once about every 26 million years. That, may be modified by anyone who knows the correct orbital period.

Ron.

[GazOC]

I think (and I might well be wrong) the main stars in Ursa Major are linked and moving through space together?

[Ant]

Yeah I think I read that somewhere, but it's still a line of sight thing...

If you go for 10,00 ly at 90 degrees to the plough, then they'll look different.

Ant

[GazOC]

Yeah I think I read that somewhere, but it's still a line of sight thing...

If you go for 10,00 ly at 90 degrees to the plough, then they'll look different.

Ant

No argument here . I was responding to SteveLs post about some stars being linked and moving together, rather than their appearance from different points in space. I should have quoted the post really....

[Ant]

Sorry

[barkis]

I Have read that the Ursa Major cluster contains over 100 stars that are scattered over an area of sky 1000 minutes of arc in diameter. It's wide angular diameter is due to it's close proximity to the earth.

The cluster includes Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta Ursa Majoris in the Plough, and also Sirius.

This information was gleaned from Colins Dictionary of Astronomy.

Ron.

[GazOC]

Sorry

My fault mate, I should have quoted Steve, the thread had moved on since he posted....;O)

[lunator]

The Usra Major moving group is remannt of a cluster and it is the closest grouping of stars to the Sun. The centre is believed to be about 80 ly away. The Hyades in comparison is 150LY away.

There are many stars that are definate members and quite a few possibles. At one point Sirius was considered a member.

With regard to which constellation the Sun is in. It can be in any depending where you are looking from.

Cheers

Ian