Constellations for Kids: Types and All Other Things You Need to Know

Constellations have been in existence for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks used the stars in various ways. They would practically use them to tell what time of year it was. In addition to that, they would form patterns from the stars above to tell tales of their different gods and heroes in their traditions.

Apart from the Greeks, other early civilizations had different interpretations of the constellations in their folklore. However, the Greek constellations were the ones that influenced and opened the way for the ones that exist today.

The concept of constellations started from the earlier constellations to the new ones we have today. There were 48 constellations originally but 40 more were added over time by astronomers who have studied space. Officially there are 88 constellations, which are mapped in the sky above us, from every pole making a sphere around our planet.

The patterns are of different kinds, shapes and sizes. The earlier ones range from all kinds of animals to gods, while the modern ones range from partial tools to all other sorts of inventions derived from astronomy.

It has been widely decided that the list of constellations stops at 88, because astronomers have completely mapped out the sky around our planet, Earth.

The astronomers use the celestial sphere to map out the sky above. This sphere is not actually a real sphere, but an imaginary one that is used to map out the existing constellations and to have knowledge of where everything is all year round.

As the Earth revolves and rotates, the constellations move around as well. In particular areas of our planet, some constellations cannot be viewed at any time of year; therefore it necessitates the need of a map. Different areas have different maps that join up together, or divide out into maps known as charts. There are 6 sky charts: Chart 1 is the North Pole Sky, Chart 2 is the South Pole Sky, Chart 3-Chart 6 is known as Equatorial Sky.

The 88 Constellations

Here, we take a look at the complete list of the constellations. The list gives the name of every constellation (in alphabetical order) and the meaning. As we saw earlier, there are 88 constellations. 42 of them are animals, 29 are objects and 17 are humans (mythological characters).

Claire T

Who am I? A Montessori educator.
What a pleasure to recognize and interpret each child’s needs!
How exciting to help children become self-reliant and support them in their process of self-development.
I am also truly passionate about guiding adults in building their relationship with children.