Is what you see the way it is?

Constellations:

Two dimensions vs. three dimensions:


What it looks like.


Really, the stars are different (big) distances away.


We can imagine the stars located on a celestial sphere.
"Distances" on the celestial are measured as angles.


The unit of angular measurement is usually the degree.
A full circle is 360 degrees.

Davison E. Soper, Institute of Theoretical Science, University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403 USA soper@bovine.uoregon.edu