Transmission Lines- our night sky.

There's space for more creativity in our understanding of science, resources, and energy, and it's time we demystify the systems ad phenomena we see daily. Transmission lines will work to bring you science related topics relevant to your everyday life, on every scale imaginable. This means everything from describing where your energy resources come from to showing you what happens when you turn a faucet on. If you've got a topic you're curious about, the door's always open to suggestions!

Constellations.

I don't pay much attention to the stars in the city. Between streetlights and neon signs, they don’t draw a lot of attention to themselves. But there are those nights in February when I'm walking home late, and I look up, and Orion's so clear and sharp in the sky that I have to stop for a second, breathless either from the scale of it all or because it's a horrific twenty below outside and I'm dicking around outside.

They rise and set like the sun, moving across the sky throughout the night as the Earth rotates about it's axis. But which constellations are visible to us change a little every day, and certain stars sink out of sight when you move radically North or South.

So why are there different constellations for our different seasons, and what are we really looking at? 

Click on me to see what I have to say!

So, it’s pretty simple. Shitty analogy time- you are the Earth, and you’re in a square room with four windows, each on a different wall.  As you walk to each window, you can see different neighbors (creep.) and a bit of what you could see in the windows on each side of you. But each time you turn around to look at the one on the opposite side, your. . .  really bright floor lamp blinds you and can’t see to the other side.

And here's a star chart for the month of July in the northern Hemispheres. I didn’t make this one. I sourced it from outer space universe.

I'd like to make a note that this is the Greek constellation system, which dominates the western culture. Though it's what I've been trying to get familiar with, it's definitely not the only one, so check out how rich with history and stories sky culture is. This is a link to wikipedia, and I'm only a little bit sorry.

Happy gazing!

Karoline

(Some sources:Graphic based off of Cornell university FAQ-- 

And this helped answer some of my questions)