Constellations Photo Gallery
The original constellations are star patterns in the night sky that ancient cultures identified with their mythologies. Many of those in the Northern Hemisphere are based on the constellations created by the Babylonians and the Greeks. They include the 12 constellations of the Zodiac (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces) that lie along the Sun's annual path across the sky.
As modern astronomy developed, many of the old star patterns were adopted to identify regions of the sky on the celestial sphere. From the southern hemisphere there were large uncharted areas of the southern sky that 17th and 18th century astronomers filled with new constellations. In 1922, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) adopted the modern list of 88 constellations that we recognize and use today. According to the modern constellation borders, the ecliptic also passes through the constellation Ophiuchus making it the thirteenth Zodiacal constellation.
The photo gallery below is a project to image some of the most prominent of the constellations. More constellation photos will be added in the coming months.
Click on each thumbnail to see a larger image.
Zodiacal Constellations
