Veronika: Constellations have pictures in the sky formed by the stars based on mythological gods creatures and heroes, all holding a purpose and a story. Hi, I am Veronika, watchmojo.com and today we are going to continue to discover the mysteries of the sky with Louie Bernstein. Constellations are star patterns how we find in the sky? What's the relevance of them?
Louie Bernstein: Long ago people didn't know what the stars were and when they looked up at the sky they really felt the sense of wonder and mystery and often times even fear. A lot of ancient cultures believe the stars were gods or spirits living in the heavens. Gradually they learned to use the stars to navigate by, to tell time by and to make sense of the sky they develop these star patterns that we call constellations they just connected the bright stars together.
Veronika: If someone is just beginning to discover the sky, how should they begin with what constellation?
Louie Bernstein: The best way to begin finding the constellations is to locate the big dipper because its easy to find and above the ball of the big dipper you can see the little dipper the tip of the little dipper's handle is the north star, when you are looking at the north star you are facing north and then from there you know where east star and west star and depending on the time of the year you know you could use the big dipper to locate other stars but you know what the best way is to get a whole of a star map.
Veronika: Now all the constellations have a story behind them, what's your favorite one?
Louie Bernstein: My favorite constellation story involves Andromeda and Perseus and Cassiopia, constellations. The story goes that Andromeda was -- she was a princess, the daughters of queen Cassiopeia and when the Andromeda began to say that she was more beautiful than the sea nymphs, the sea nymphs are represented by the Pleiades, seven stars, that former star cluster in Taurus, the Pleiades who are the daughters Neptune the king of the sea and when Neptune heard that Andromeda is saying she was more beautiful than his daughters he got angry and condemned her to be changed to a rock by the sea and she was going to be devoured by Cetus the sea servant.
Actually, it's was Perseus who came and managed to kill the sea servant and -- lived happily ever after. It is an interesting story and --
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