Constellation Station

The starry sky is full of lore and legend. Learning about the constellations, or star patterns, is often a first step into amateur sky watching and ultimately the study of astronomy and space science.

In Constellation Station you will encounter interesting information about the stars and constellations while you are enjoying the game. As you play you will find yourself learning the names of all the leading constellations in the northern sky, some of the brightest stars they contain, and other basic information about them.

The game board has a big sky map surrounded by a hemisphere wheel. The map provides a general picture of where the constellations are in relation to one another. The named spaces of the Hemisphere Wheel "point" to the corresponding constellation on the Sky Map. The constellation can be found by following a straight line from the name on the wheel to its map location.

The game can be an introduction to sky watching outdoors. After playing the game, turn out the lights to see the stars on the game board glow-in-the-dark. Practice recognizing the star patterns. Then go out and see the night sky! You might want to make up your own stories and legends about the star patterns you see.

The game board map by itself won't identify which stars are where in the sky, since that depends on the date, time of the night and latitude on earth. Good guidebooks and other sky watching aids that take these things into account are described in the suggested reading section. Have fun and keep looking up!