The constellations

Orion

The famous Orion, the hunter, constellation is easy to find in the night sky because of the three stars in his belt, and the bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel near his shoulder and foot. Orion is shown facing the constellation Taurus, the Bull, which hints that Orion might be based on the Sumerian hero Gilgamesh or the Greek hero Heracles, who both fought bulls. Orion’s many stories tell of his skill as a brave hunter, but he died because he was too proud. In one story, Orion bragged that he could kill any animal on Earth, which either made the Earth angry, or Artemis, the goddess of hunting, was upset. To punish Orion, the Earth sent a scorpion to sting him, and he died from the sting. Because of this, Orion and the scorpion constellations are on opposite sides of the sky, making it look like Orion is running away as the scorpion rises in the east.

Pegasus

According to the Greek myth, after Perseus defeated Medusa by cutting off her head, Pegasus came out of her neck and flew away. Some stories say that Perseus was actually riding Pegasus when he saved Andromeda, but usually, Pegasus is linked to the hero Bellerophon. Zeus also used Pegasus to carry his thunderbolts. Even though we only see the front half of Pegasus in the night sky, it is the seventh-largest constellation in the northern sky. Long ago, the constellation was made up of a “square of Pegasus,” which was a group of four bright stars. However, now one of those stars, near Pegasus' belly, has been given to the nearby constellation Andromeda and is called Alpha Andromedae, so only three stars remain in the well-known square.

Leo

When Heracles went temporarily mad because of the goddess Hera, he accidentally killed his wife and children. To make up for these terrible actions, he was given 12 very hard tasks to complete. The first task was to kill the Nemean lion, a scary creature with a tough hide that liked to attack the people living nearby. Heracles managed to defeat the lion by hugging it tightly and squeezing it to death. The constellation Leo represents this fierce lion. It has six stars in an arc shape that shows the lion's front body and head, ready to pounce. The brightest star in this arc is called Regulus, which means “little king.”

Phoenix

The Phoenix, located near the constellation Eridanus, refers to the mythical, multicolored bird that is able to rise from the ashes of its predecessor.  Ankaa, the Arabic name of the constellation’s largest star, means phoenix.

Ursa Major

Ursa Major, also known as the Great Bear, has seven stars that form its back and tail. You might know it better as the Big Dipper because its stars look like a ladle or a drinking gourd. Four stars make the cup part, and three stars make the handle.
The story behind the name Ursa Major is more complicated. In a book called Metamorphosis, the writer Ovid tells a story about a huntress named Callisto. She promised to stay loyal to the goddess Artemis, but Zeus tricked her by pretending to be Artemis. Callisto ended up having a son named Arcas. When Zeus’ wife Hera found out, she turned Callisto into a bear. Later, Arcas, not knowing the bear was his mother, tried to hunt her. To stop this tragedy, Zeus turned Callisto into the constellation Ursa Major and Arcas into another constellation called Boötes, the Herdsman.

Andromeda

Andromeda was the daughter of Queen Cassiopeia and King Cepheus. Her parents chained her to a rock in the sea as a sacrifice to the sea monster Cetus. Things seemed dire for Andromeda until Perseus, a hero who had just defeated the gorgon Medusa, flew down from the sky and saved her.

The constellation Andromeda used to share its main star, Alpha Andromedae (also called Alpheratz), with the nearby constellation Pegasus. The Andromeda Galaxy, which is part of the Andromeda constellation, is 2.5 million light-years away from Earth and is the farthest object in space that we can see without a telescope.