BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Zodiac Constellations - Quiz *new article*

How well do you know the constellations of the zodiac? They are the oldest of the constellations. Here's a little quiz for you to test your knowledge. It's complete with answers and some additional facts about the zodiac constellations.

Zodiac Constellations - Quiz

You can find out more about Gemini - the Celestial Twins here.

Castor and Pollux are a pair of stars that are close together and of a similar brightness, but they're really quite different. Pollux - an orange gaint - looks a teensy bit brighter than Castor. Castor isn't a single star, but a star system of six stars. You can see Castor A and B through a small telescope. They are bright white stars orbiting fairly close together. It's also possible to see the fainter and more distant Castor C. Castor A and B each have an unseen companion that can only be detected with special equipment. Castor C is actually a pair of red dwarf stars.

Virgo the Maiden has been an agricultural goddess for thousands of years. She's represented usually with a wheat sheaf in one hand and a palm frond in the other. She has been linked with Demeter whose daughter Persephone was taken as the wife to Hades, god of the underworld. However that's only one of many stories.

Click to find out more about Leo the Lion.

Most constellations don't really resemble what they represent, but I can imagine Leo as a crouching lion. Here is a diagram of Leo and the head and mane form an asterism called the Sickle. I always see it as a backwards question mark with Regulus as the dot.

Fun quiz! I'm trying to write an essay about the relationship of astronomy and astrology, and you gave me some good ideas. I always enjoy reading your articles!

Korie, I'm now back from ten days of very limited internet, so I've just seen your comment. ABC of Astronomy - A Is for Astronomy might be of interest.

Orion isn't part of the zodiac, though his nemesis Scorpius is. But Orion the Hunter is a popular constellation. The asterism of Orion's belt - three evenly-spaced bright stars - makes it easy to pick out in the sky. It also has a number of other bright stars, so even in urban areas you can often find it.

The constellation of Taurus the Bull has a number of interesting features. There are two that I find particularly impressive. The Crab Nebula is the remains of a massive star that ended its life in a colossal explosion known as a supernova. The other is a beautiful star cluster, the Pleiades.

In this picture they've joined up the stars of Sagittarius that form the "teapot" asterism. The photo was taken by the Japanese astrophotographer Akira Fujii and shows a full view of the constellation of Sagittarius.

Cancer the crab scuttles across the late winter sky, well away from its nemesis Hercules. Cancer (Latin for crab) is a zodiac constellation, the Tropic of Cancer is named for it, and it has existed for over three thousand years. Yet it seems to be a dim and unremarkable constellation. How does it rate so much attention?