有关星座的英文介绍

在占星学上，黄道12星座是宇宙方位的代名词，代表了12种基本性格原型。下面小编为大家整理的有关星座的英文介绍，希望对大家有用!

有关星座的英文介绍

In colloquial usage, a constellation is a group of celestial bodies, usually stars, which appear to form a pattern or picture in the sky. Astronomers today still utilize the term, though the current system focuses primarily on constellations as grid-like segments of the celestial sphere rather than as patterns. A star-pattern that is not officially classed as a constellation is referred to as an asterism. One famous example is the asterism known as the Big Dipper, a term unused by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as the stars are considered part of the larger constellation of Ursa Major.

In 1922, Henry Norris Russell aided the IAU in dividing the celestial sphere into 88 official constellations. Where possible, these modern constellations usually share the names of their Graeco-Roman predecessors, such as Orion, Leo and Scorpius. While such celestial formations were originally linked to a mythical event, creature or person, the categorization of the night sky into recognizable patterns was important in early land and naval navigation prior to the invention of the compass during the Age of Discovery. With the technical advancement of astronomy, it became important to move from a pattern-based system of constellations to one based on area-mapping, which led to several historic formations becoming obsolete. Out of the modern constellations, 37 lie predominantly in the northern sky, and the other 51 predominantly in the southern. Since much of the southern sky was not visible to classical astronomers based around the Mediterranean Sea, many of the constellations of the far south were named only in the last 300 years, and have no ancient counterparts.