--- title: Constellations and the night sky in winter and spring — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Constellations and the night sky in winter and spring», a lesson of the space course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A constellation is an area of sky with an agreed pattern of stars, like a county on a map of the sky: astronomers use --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Space](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/) / Constellations and the night sky in wi… # Constellations and the night sky in winter and spring Lesson 20 of the space course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/0/) — A constellation is an area of sky with an agreed pattern of stars, like a county on a map of the sky: astronomers use 88 official ones that together cover the whole sky. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/1/) — The evening sky changes through the year because the Earth goes round the Sun, so at night we face a different part of space each season, like children on a roundabout seeing different faces in the crowd as they go round. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/2/) — In winter, Orion the hunter is the easy one: three bright stars in a row make his belt, which points down-left to Sirius and up-right to orange Aldebaran in Taurus. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/3/) — All year from Britain or Canada the Plough never sets, and its two Pointers lead to Polaris, the Pole Star, almost still above due north, with the W of Cassiopeia on the other side. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/4/) — In spring Leo appears in the south with his backwards question mark, the Sickle; and the curve of the Plough's handle leads you to "arc to Arcturus" and "speed on to Spica". - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/6/) — Since 1922 to 1930 astronomers have used 88 official constellations covering the whole sky. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/7/) — The evening constellations change through the year because the Earth moves round the Sun, so at night we face a different part of space each season; in summer Orion is up in the daytime sky, hidden by sunlight. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/8/) — Orion, the hunter, is the easiest winter constellation from Britain and North America, with three bright stars in a row making his belt. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/9/) — Orion's belt points down-left to Sirius, the brightest star, and up-right to orange Aldebaran in Taurus. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/10/) — Betelgeuse, Sirius and Procyon form the Winter Triangle, a large shape of three bright stars in the winter evening sky; it is not one of the 88 constellations but a shape made by stars from three of them. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/11/) — Taurus has the V-shaped Hyades and the Pleiades, and Gemini has the twin stars Castor and Pollux, both high on winter evenings in the north. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/13/) — The two end stars of the Plough's bowl, the Pointers, lead to Polaris, the Pole Star, which stays almost still above due north. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/14/) — Cassiopeia, a W or M of five stars, sits on the other side of Polaris from the Plough and is also always up from Britain. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/15/) — In spring, Leo the lion appears in the south, its head and mane a backwards question mark called the Sickle, with bright Regulus at the bottom. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/16/) — In spring, follow the curve of the Plough's handle to "arc to Arcturus" and then "speed on to Spica" in Virgo. - ← previous: [How stars die](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/19-how-stars-die/) - next →: [The night sky in summer and autumn, and the southern sky](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/21-the-night-sky-in-summer-and-autumn-and-the-southern-sky/) - ↑ back to [Space](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/space/)