But for the novice just learning his or her way around the sky, the determined amateur pursuing a Messier Certificate, or a school student looking for information for that science paper that needs to be written, most astronomy information on the Internet is either too technical, or not technical at all. Enter the Constellation Home Page. The AAAA plans to dig into its extensive collection of constellation slides, combine them with lively descriptions written by Rick Raasch of Dallas, include basic data on the Messier objects with a useful constellation map, and have a page for all 88 constellations. Many pages are already in development, with more on the way. The sky is divided up into 88 areas, known as constellations, which serve as a convenient way of locating the position of objects in the sky.
Constellations come in many different shapes and sizes.
The largest constellation, Hydra, the water snake, is a long and rambling figure that covers an area of sky 19 times greater than that of the smallest constellation. Crux, the Southern Cross. Some constellations consist of easily recognizable patterns of bright stars, such as Orion, while others are faint and difficult to identify. The tradition of dividing the sky into constellations began thousands of years ago when ancient peoples assigned certain star patterns the names of their gods, heroes, and fabled animals. The ancient Greeks recognized a total of 48 constellations, including the 12 constellations of the zodiac, through which the Sun passes on its yearly path around the sky.