According to the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), constellation is a term that can also be written as constellation , although this second form is used infrequently. Coming from the Latin word constellatio , it is the group of stars that, through imaginary lines , give shape to a drawing that refers to a certain figure .
Constellations, therefore, are sets created by convention . The practice of grouping stars according to imaginary lines dates back to Antiquity , when different peoples began to record virtual figures in the sky. The position of the constellations in the night sky appears unchanged.
Given that we are dealing with very ancient discoveries and that there are no historical records on which to base their study, it is not easy to precisely specify the origin of the first constellations drawn in the West. According to some research, Taurus, Scorpio and Leo (the bull, the scorpion and the lion, respectively) were "discovered" approximately four millennia before the Christian era, although they did not have those same names.
Despite what the observation of the constellations may mean today, it is estimated that the first human beings who became interested in the arrangement of the stars had more practical reasons, that is, they sought to rely on this plane of nature to better organize your tasks, your trips and your rituals . Thanks to the creation of different constellations, for example, people from ancient towns could measure the passage of time and the arrival of the seasons more accurately.
The constellations also allowed ancient civilizations to orient themselves much better throughout their travels, both by sea and by land, since the figures that they warned by relating the stars to each other added to the series of signs and reference points that They used to plot their routes.
The International Astronomical Union , the group that makes decisions related to the naming of planets and the establishment of astronomy standards, among other issues, recognizes 88 constellations , almost half of which were imagined by ancient Greek astronomers.
Chinese culture is the source of one of the largest and oldest groups of constellations in the world. As with many of its elements, starting from the language itself, its constellations do not resemble those that we learn to recognize in the West; In large part, the reason for this difference is due to the fact that these people developed their version of astronomy at the same time as the Greeks, in a completely independent and parallel way. Broadly speaking, we can say that the Chinese constellations are divided into 3 enclosures and 28 mansions .
It is important to keep in mind that the constellations are arbitrary : the stars have no association with each other and can even be located hundreds of light years away. It is a human construction and even the same star can belong to different constellations depending on each culture .
One of the best-known constellations is Orion , which features the asterism known as Orion's Belt or The Three Marys . This cluster is made up of three bright stars ( Mintaka , Alnilam and Alnitak ) that are easily visible.
The zodiac signs proposed by astrology , on the other hand, are linked to constellations such as Aries , Pisces , Taurus and Leo . Astrologers maintain that these signs determine certain personality characteristics and somehow govern people's destiny.
In colloquial language, a meeting or set of prominent or famous figures is called a constellation. For example: “The mayor's wedding was a constellation of celebrities,” “The constellation of Real Madrid stars never worked as a team.”