Understanding the Constellation guides

[YorkshireSam]

I am a little confused to some of the references given in some of the constellation guides on the internet.

For example looking up details for Ursa Minor ... there is a paragraph :

"Ursa Minor belongs to the Ursa Major family of constellations, along with Coma Berenices, Boötes, Camelopardalis, Canes Venatici, Corona Borealis, Draco, Leo Minor, Lynx, and Ursa Major."

I am unsure of the meaning refered to. Are all these constellations related, move in the same pattern/direction... how are they all a family?

[ollypenrice]

11 minutes ago, YorkshireSam said:

I am a little confused to some of the references given in some of the constellation guides on the internet.

For example looking up details for Ursa Minor ... there is a paragraph :

"Ursa Minor belongs to the Ursa Major family of constellations, along with Coma Berenices, Boötes, Camelopardalis, Canes Venatici, Corona Borealis, Draco, Leo Minor, Lynx, and Ursa Major."

I am unsure of the meaning refered to. Are all these constellations related, move in the same pattern/direction... how are they all a family?

I have never heard them referred to as a family in this way. Most constellations are simply line-of-sight effects with no physical connection. If I have this right, though, some of the stars of the Plough asterism do have properties which suggest that they came from a once tighter open cluster. I don't think the author was doing anything more than grouping them together based upon their position in the sky.

Olly