As earth orbits the sun in its annual cycle, our planet's night side faces in steadily changing directions, revealing different stars, constellations, and views of our own Milky Way. People in ancient times named constellations after mythological figures and familiar creatures whose shapes they saw outlined by the stars. The best known of these constellations lie along the ecliptic, the imaginary line that traces the apparent path of the sun through the sky. Earth, our moon, and other planets orbit in nearly the same plane, all traveling along a band roughly 16 degrees wide centered on the ecliptic and called the zodiac. Modern constellations are simply designated regions of the celestial sphere, like countries on a map.
Most constellations bear little resemblance to their namesakes.
If you wish to observe at a different time, date or location, note that the same stars appear two hours earlier each month, or one hour earlier every two weeks. The maps do not chart the planets of our solar system, whose positions change continually. Their locations are often listed in the weather section of newspapers. New stars are being born in the Orion Nebula, a mixture of young stars, gases, and dust visible to the naked eye or with binoculars as a fuzzy area in Orion's sword, which hangs from his belt. The spring sky features the wellknown Big Dipper, part of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear.