Constellations

How many constellations can you see there????

Hmn. I've never counted! And constellations are really just humans putting their imagination onto random placements and creating patterns connecting it with things in their lives. I don't know 'how many' to be honest. Most of them are upside down for us so 'Orion's Belt' becomes the bottom of "The Saucepan". Kids look in the sky and see The Saucepan, and also, The Shopping Trolley. (two different constellations). Aboriginal people of this area look into the sky and see a big stingray, where we see The Southern Cross (which is on our flag, and apparently can't be seen in the Northern Hemisphere). I don't know much about the Northern Hemisphere's constellations or if I can find them down here. I just know that when I travelled to Europe the sky looked foreign and weird.

Here are some links that might be useful.
Learning the Stars Downunder.
Some info about (some) Aboriginal interpretations of the stars.

Something you might be surprised about if you ever visit is that the Southern Cross and the two pointer stars is quite small! It certainly doesn't take up a huge space of night sky. But most (I think) Australians can pick it out and find it quite quickly. It can help us with directions, though very few know how to do that properly.

What constellations can *you* see as an Australian?