"Night Sky Constellations!"
July 26, 2026.
In all probability, the Cave Man began looking and using the nighttime stars for decision making and directions. It was not until the period around 500 CE until the star Polaris became the North Star, thus even before ancient times, there were other stars used as "North Stars." Ancient Skywatchers, namely the Babylonians, began studying and observing the night sky in the period of 1800 BCE. Around 750 BCE, they began a more detailed approach at mapping out the stars into constellations. Years later, in the time frame of 600 BCE, the early Greeks became sky watchers. The Romans became involved around 200 CE. Guess somewhere in that time frame from the caveman to the Romans, these skywatchers became astronomers.
There are 88 total constellations in the night sky, almost equally divided between the northern and southern hemispheres. Of those 88 constellations, 12 are grouped as the zodiac signs or zodiac constellations. They are positioned in the sky in such a manner as to be in about the same plane as the path of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. The linear path that the Sun describes across the sky is called the ecliptic. The constellations on that path are collectively called the zodiac and extend a few degrees above and below the ecliptic line. Viewed from Earth, they appear to follow each other with a few visible at any time in the night sky. They are visible in both the northern and southern hemispheres and appear to rise just above the horizon, rise a few degrees, and then go below the horizon in an Earth year's time frame. The Babylonians, circa BCE 500, divided the path of the zodiac track into 12 equal 30-degree segments and named each segment after prominent constellations. Thus, the zodiac signs were born and some of the astronomers and other Sky Watchers began to interpret the positions of planets and stars to predict human events, thus becoming astrologists.
By now, I have written more than what I know about astronomy and have touched a little on astrology with the graphics that are presented. I have never studied astronomy, know very little about it but I do find it interesting. Astrology is a subject of a different matter as I am aware of the astrologist signs or the zodiac signs, but have limited knowledge of them. So why have I come up with these few paragraphs on the two subjects of astronomy and astrology. Hum, guess I just got on a roll. At least, enjoy the graphics and I do have a few pictures presented that was taken at the 2009 Rockport Days Event.
Wishing you the best for the year 2026, and it is already over half gone.
see you. ....
jerry
