Stargazing 101 - Two different Skies

I have started my process of rediscovering naked eye astronomy, or more popularly called stargazing, I have found myself a bit struck just on the sheer difference between the northern and the southern sky.

I'll be writing short posts about bunch of different stories about constellations, asterisms, navigation and stories from different cultures, mostly Greek and Slavic and of course share some well known stories of indigenous Australians.

The funny thing is, all the "shapes" and "figures" in the constellations are upside down. I generally knew this, but once I started rehearsing my night-sky tour in the Stellarium (free software for simulating locations and visibility of the night sky), I was awestruck actually realizing that all the images of constellations are upside down. See these two images of the Orion the Hunter – one of the most popular constellations with the Betelgeuse (orange/red-ish star in the shoulder).

So, let that sink in for a bit, and in the next post we'll discuss the basis of orientation and navigation in nature, the magnetic poles of the Earth.

Have you ever experienced difference between the northern and southern skies? Or the elongation of the sky/ constellations as you are closing to one of the poles?

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