Astronomy
How many constellations of the 88 known have special significance because they overlap the path that the Sun makes in the sky
13
How many official constellations are there?
88 "official" constellations
What are each of the constellations of the zodiac assigned with?
A number and three letter abbreviation
What did the International Astronomical Union base their names and boundaries on ?
Ancient Greek Tradition
What do most zodiac constellations resemble
Animals
What are constellations based on?
Arbitrary groupings of stars that only seem to be close together
Brightest stars in the the constellations
Arcturus, Sirius, Polaris, and Vega
What other groups decided constellations of their own?
Chinese, Egyptians, and Native Americans
What are the 12 or 13 constellations that the sun passes through called ?
Constellations of the Zodiac
When did astronomers begin to give the brightest stars Greek Letter Designations
Early 1600s
What does ecliptic also for ?
Earth's shared orbit with the constellations and the other planet around the sun
What is the curved line through the middle of the constellation
Ecliptic
Where does the word zodiac come from
Greek word for animal
What are the constellations based on ?
Greeks
Who made the list official names and boundaries and when was it officialized
International Astronomical Union in 1930
How does the letter designations go ?
Latin genitive form of the constellations name preceded by a lower case Greek Letter starting with alpha for the brightest and so on down the alphabet
The word constellation means
Studded with stars
What is another "official" constellation called based only on modern day inventions ?
Telescopium which is based on the telescope
What is the imaginary intersection of the Earth's equatorial plane with celestial sphere
The celestial equator
What is the path that the constellations pass through with the sun
The ecliptic
What is the main importance, other then its role in ancient astrology, that the zodiac plays in today
The planets are all found based on its constellations
Why do modern day astronomers retain the ancient constellations ?
They are a way to group stars in a more familiar way
Are constellations usually very different distances or the same distances from us in space
Very different from us in Space