Stories in the Sky People have always been guided by the stars. Farmers used the stars to decide when to plant or harvest crops. Travelers used stars to guide their journeys. Stars guided people long before maps or computers.

Long ago, people noticed that stars form patterns in the sky. They told stories about these groups of stars, called constellations. These stories used people, animals, or objects to describe the stars, and each story reflected the storyteller’s culture. Most stories come from the ancient Greeks. Today, astronomers recognize eighty-eight constellations.

An illustration shows a constellation. Several stars are connected by lines to form the shape of a cup with a long handle.

The Big Dipper looks like a cup with a long handle. It is part of a larger constellation called Ursa Major. It looks like a bear. In the Greek myth about Ursa Major, Zeus, the king of the gods, changes a woman named Callisto into a bear. Native American stories about this constellation also use a bear. Escaped enslaved workers used this constellation to guide them North. This led to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

The Little Dipper looks like a smaller version of the Big Dipper. It is part of a constellation called Ursa Minor. The stories of the two dippers are related. In the myth, the bear Callisto wanders in the woods. Callisto’s son is hunting. He sees the bear but he does not recognize the bear as his mother. The son is about to kill her when Zeus stops him by turning him into a bear as well. Zeus flings both bears by their tails into the night sky. This unusual detail explains why the bears have long tails.

Bright stars make Orion another easy constellation to find. It can be identified by the three bright stars in Orion’s belt. The Greek myth about Orion tells of a great hunter with a big ego. Orion thinks that he is the best hunter in the world. He brags that he can kill any animal. The goddess of Earth is worried that Orion might harm animals. She sends a scorpion to sting and kill him. Because of this fight, the constellation Scorpius is on the other side of the sky from Orion. This distance keeps Orion and the scorpion from fighting.

Constellations and their stories are interesting. Grab a star chart and go outside. There are many stories waiting to be told.
Why does the author explain how travelers used the stars at the beginning of the article?

A.
to show that stars are pretty to look at in the night sky

B.
to show that stars can show people in which direction to go

C.
to show that stars are the subject of stories told by travelers

D.
to show that stars can be seen only at certain times of the year