CONSTELLATION QUIZ

Think you are a constellation guru? Learning constellation patterns can be daunting. Beginners may think dark skies can help. In fact, too many stars can make it difficult to recognize even bright, familiar constellation patterns.

The five photos below were taken at an Alachua Astronomy Club Star Party from a member's home (Stargate Observatory) during mid-evening on the night of 2016 October 1/2. This is a moderately dark site about seven miles northeast of Live Oak, Florida.

Although occasional clouds reduced transparency, up to one minute exposure times with a DSLR on a tracking mount (unguided) and a 50 mm (focal length) lens easily revealed stars fainter than naked eye visibility. Thus, these photos make it difficult to recognize major constellations!

INSTRUCTIONS: Click each image to see an enlargement. Then, try to recognize one or more major constellations in each photograph. Since all photos taken on an autumn evening, views show either summer or fall constellations. If need more help, click on the Hint Button to see a small pop up window with a short hint. Finally, to see answer, click the picture for a labeled version.

WARNING: Several of these photographs will defy all but those who have the time and determination to carefully scrutinize these star fields! So do not peek at the answers until you have had a go at it.

Picture #1 (Easy?)

Picture #2 (Easy if do #1)

Picture #3 (Fairly Difficult?)

Picture #4 (Difficult?)

Picture #5 (Difficult?)

Camera: Canon EOS 5D II • Lens: Canon 50mm f/1.8 • Mount: Tracking Equatorial

Note: Lens is an inexpensive 50 mm, f/1.8 Canon lens (abt. $110 in 2016). Lens aberrations (e.g., coma) is apparent near edges including vignetting causing light fall-off near photo peripheries.
(This can give a false sense of diminishing numbers of stars.)
Width of photos is approximately 40 degrees.