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An effective way to learn the patterns of stars in the sky is to take pictures, develop them digitally when you request slides or prints, and then use a simple photo program to draw constellation lines and add labels.  Here are some constellation tours and examples.

Find Comet Holmes in Perseus (November 2007) from Cassiopeia.
Orion's stars form the center of the Winter Circle.  These photos walk you through the winter constellations and show you Mars as it appeared on Nov. 3, 2007 in Gemini. Winter Circle Power Point, and jpgs of the winter constellations.
Try some Sky Projects like capturing the Milky Way, Aurora, and even planets like Uranus and Neptune from a dark site, using black and white or color film.
Star Hop from Orion to the Pleiades
  Learn the Orion's star names, Greek letters, and magnitudes.
Use the slice tool in HOU-IP with fts versions of Sagittarius and Scorpius to draw constellation lines.  Or, use Makali'i software and the graph tool to draw lines on jpg files.
Easy Constellation Photography:  How to take pictures of the sky with a single lens reflex camera (one that you operate with a cable release and allows you to expose for about 20 seconds or many minutes.)
Capture Star Trails when you lock the shutter open for a long time.

Back to Explorations  or Back to Yerkes Observatory

Created for Yerkes Observatory and Hands-On Universe to help teachers and students find Comet 17P/Holmes.   Vivian Hoette, Yerkes Observatory, December 13, 2007 09:22 PM