You’ll find the constellations up in space so looking at them at night time makes sense – they’re kind of hard to find in the daytime! Learning about the constellations is much more fun and much more interesting if you actually go outside and look for them (our astronomy for kids activities give you a perfect chance to impress your parents by telling them that you’re thinking of studying astro-physics).
If you do go outside, look up and try to find the constellation called the Plough (also called the Big Dipper or the Great Bear) and it’s a great one to start with. Orion and Cassiopeia are also easy to recognise once you’ve seen pictures of them. If it’s cloudy don’t worry, just have a look at some pictures online. The stars in real constellations don’t look much like the object they’re supposed to represent – the constellation Pegasus doesn’t really look anything like a winged horse! You’ll need to use your imagination.
