Basic Information
A constellation (Latin: Being together of stars) is a pattern of stars, as perceived from Earth. These patterns are generally - and often with the aid of considerable imagination (or other substances) perceived to take on specific shapes which, historically, were considered of mythical significance. Many ancient civilisations considered the constellations to be the heavenly forms - or remains - of significant entities from their mythology and found meaning in their apparent movement and relative positions, whether to one another or to the planets (which were, in some cases, considered stars themselves). Into the modern era, astrology pays significant attention to the apparent positions of various constellations to determine their supposed influences on the lives and fates of individuals.
More practically, constellations can also be used to identify the location of specific stars used for navigation and the passage of time determined by their relative position in the sky.
In astronomical terms, constellations are much less helpful, as perceived proximity from an earthbound point of view does not necessarily lend itself to actual proximity in space: a given constellation can be spread over vast distances on the viewer's axis of sight, whilst appearing close to one another on the other two axes.
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Game and Story Use
- A campaign world should have its own night sky and constellations - in some these may actually be of supernatural significance, although there will need to be significant changes to astrophysics in the setting if they are actually the heavenly forms of powerful entities. (for example in the Dragonlance stories, when the constellations representing the Dragon King and Dark Queen vanish, it implies that both are currently incarnate on Krynn … and not that several dozen solar bodies have suddenly vanished. And let's not get into RuneQuest cosmology).