Stars and Constellations

What this quiz asks

• The famous star pattern called the Big Dipper, or the Plough, belongs to which constellation?
• Seen from the Southern Hemisphere, the constellation Orion looks upside down compared with the view from Europe.
• Which star sits almost directly above Earth's North Pole, making it the pole star of our era?
• Apart from the Sun, which star shines brightest in Earth's night sky?
• The constellation named after this creature has which red supergiant star at its heart?
• Which red supergiant marks one of the shoulders of Orion?
• What colour are the hottest stars?
• Do stars twinkle because their light really flickers on and off?
• How many constellations are officially recognised by the International Astronomical Union?
• Select ALL of these that are constellations of the zodiac.
• The stars that form a constellation are usually close to one another in space.
• What is the nearest star to the Sun?
• Which star cluster in Taurus is also known as the Seven Sisters?
• Select ALL of these stars that form the Summer Triangle.
• Which constellation appears on the flags of Australia, New Zealand and Brazil?
• How many light-years away from us is Sirius?
• What will be left when a star like the Sun reaches the end of its life?
• Order these stellar spectral classes from hottest to coolest.
• On the scale astronomers use for a star's apparent brightness, what does a lower number mean?
• Which method measures the distance to nearby stars from their tiny shift in position as Earth orbits the Sun?