Stars: A Glimpse into Time, Myth, and Science

People have looked to the stars for information since the beginning of time. There is no way to look up on a clear night and not see the stars. Ancient astronomers recorded the positions of planets and stars. The Babylonian’s handed down this data to the Greeks. This information about the constellation system is still in use today. Stars have been used to predict the future, preserve stories of legends and myths, navigation across oceans, and mapping the constellations.
Stars are a collection of gases and elements. When enough pressure is pulled together, the star will start to glow and burn. Stars live for millions of years. Proto stars are in the process of becoming a star. When the star starts growing, however if the star doesn’t produce

enough to glow it is called a brown dwarf. Stars die when the gases burn out and the star quits shining in the sky. There are different size stars in the sky; however, the greatest star is called supergiant. The larger stars can explode as a supernova. Supernovas leave spectacular color in the night’s sky, giving one last bang before the star dies off. The Sun we see today is a huge star; it is called a yellow dwarf star.
Astronomers believed that they could predict the outcome of important events with the stars. They would watch the stars move across the sky as the season changed. “The first sky watchers noticed that those tiny dots of light the stars seemed to move across the sky throughout the night, and to change positions as the seasons changed” (Driscoll 19). The Babylonians are believed to be the first to record astronomical. “The early Greeks were especially famous for studying the heavens” (Driscoll 25). Priests were considered to be astronomers who had an understanding of the universe and would make predictions by what they saw in the stars. Kings were dependent on the omens the priest foretold from the stars.
Stars have been used for navigation, for years. When traveling to the open ocean sailor’s used planets and stars to navigate where they were at and where they were going like we use maps today. In the Northern Hemisphere, the North Star can be found by looking for the Big Dipper. “The North Star, also known as Polaris, sits directly over the North Pole, in line with the earth’s axis. It always indicates north. If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, learning to identify it in the night sky is the most important navigation trick” (VanHaren). When facing the North Star, East is on the right, west is on the left, and the south is behind you. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Southern Cross is used for navigation. When the night’s sky is clear, one should be able to tell which direction they are going without a compass. Venus was the only planet that was used for navigation. However, ancient astronomers believed Venus to be a star calling it the Evening Star or Morning Star, after the love goddess. Venus is easily spotted first thing in the morning or when the sun goes down. It is the shining light past the moon.
Most of the legends surrounding the skies were passed down to the Greeks and ultimately to today’s world.

When the people looked into the heavens, they wanted to see a story. They wished to explain the things happening around them. Legend tells us that the stars are great warriors and animals that God sent into heaven because he either loved or hated them. In Egypt, they aligned the pyramids to face north because they thought their Pharaohs became stars after they died. The Tower of Babel is believed to have been built as a stairway to the heavens. The Native Americans thought the constellation the Great Bear, which has the big dipper in it, to be a bear that was searching all year for a place to hibernate. Greek legend says that the constellation Orion is a lonely soldier searching for love. Sometimes the stories make it easier to see the

constellations.
In ancient times, star gazers imagined lines between the stars which became shapes.

These shapes called constellations became stories that have been passed down generations. Within the Constellations, there are twelve signs that astrology uses today. They are known as the zodiac signs. “Each of the twelve constellations of the Zodiac represents a time of the year, roughly a month long” (Driscoll 73). There are twelve months in a year. Many people still believe that the positions of the planets and stars foretell what is going to happen. People also think that if a person is born in a certain month, they are predetermined to have a particular personality. For example, a person born between January and February is under the Aquarius zodiac sign. They are believed to be independent, inquisitive, and outgoing. All the zodiac signs have a prediction on everyone’s birthday that’s called a horoscope. Astrologers predicted the future based on where the stars and planets are in the sky. “Astrology may seem silly, but for centuries it was considered as real as any scientific fact” (Driscoll 73). Scientist has separated astrology, the study of the zodiac signs, and astronomy, the study of the heavens. They say that astronomy can be confirmed and astrology

cannot.
It is amazing to think the same stars that were written about in the poems the Iliad and the Odyssey are the same stars seen today. Homer described Orion as walking the Heavens and hunting the underworld for beasts. Stars can still be used to navigate, and tell what time of year it is. However, people don’t look to the stars for all the answers today; one reason is that now there are calendars, and record keeping is not as hard today. It took astronomers awhile to get the stars and planets correct, as scientist learn new things, old facts will be proven incorrect. People only dreamed about going to the heavens. Now astronauts can travel to and from planets, and they are starting to explore more space. They have built a space station where they stay for years at a time studying space. The Greeks would be very disappointed to know that when astronauts went up in space, they did not find the heavens. They only found more stars and planets. People will keep looking up their horoscopes in hopes of finding out what kind of day they might have. However, no matter what scientists unravel about the heavens, there will always be more questions. There is a vast universe waiting to be explored by the next generation. “As time goes on, we use our instruments, science, math, reasoning, and creativity to learn more about the secrets of the Universe” (Johnson).