Guy Eberwein,, age 12, of Allentown, PA,, ::

Who named the constellations?

Mankind was a star‑.gazer, even long before the dawn of written history. In fact, the early star‑gazing helped to develop the earliest civilizations of the Old World. In the Valley of Mesopotamia, tall buildings were made for studying the heavens. They made star maps arid charts and knew that certain stars appeared with certain seasons. Thousands of years ago.. these people knew enough to predict the eclipses.

The stars were also mapped and studied in other early civilizations 1n Greece and in Egypt. The groups of fixed stare seemed to form pictures. It was natural to name these constellations from things, animals and sometimes heroes. Leo the Lion, Taurus the Bull and Lepus the Hare may have been named long, long ago when mankind was close to nature. Pegasus and Draco are named from mythical animals and Orions Perseus and Hercules are named for heroes who were famous around the Mediterranean islands countless ages ago,