Q1.
Fig. 12.2 shows bright stars in one part of the night sky. Look at it carefully and try to imagine a pattern formed by a group of stars. Draw lines to connect the stars and make the pattern. Think of an animal or an object that is similar to the pattern drawn by you. Write its name near your pattern. Repeat the above steps and make some more patterns. Now think of an interesting story about your patterns.
Answer
How to do it: take a pencil, put a light dot on every bright star in Fig. 12.2 (ignore the faint ones), and then join four to eight of those dots with straight lines. Do not try to join every star — a good pattern uses only a few.
- Pick the brightest stars first. They are the ones you would actually notice in the sky.
- Join them with straight, simple lines — a square, a triangle, a hook, a chain.
- Ask yourself: what does this shape remind me of? Write that name beside it.
- Now repeat on a different group of stars in the same figure.
Sample answer: here are four patterns a student made from the same figure, with the story that goes with each.
| Shape you draw | Name you give it | The story |
|---|---|---|
| Four stars in a rectangle, with three more trailing off one corner | Grandmother's cot | Three thieves are quietly dragging away the cot on which grandmother is sleeping. She never wakes up, so they must circle the sky with it every night. |
| A long curved chain of five stars | Peacock's tail | A peacock spread its tail so wide during a monsoon dance that the feathers stuck in the sky. |
| A triangle with a short tail | Kite (patang) | A boy's kite snapped on Makar Sankranti and flew so high that it never came down. |
| Three stars in a row with two above and two below | Bullock cart | A farmer's cart carrying grain to the market — the three stars in the middle are the yoke. |
Why there is no single correct answer: the lines are imaginary. Nothing in the sky joins the stars. Every group of people who looked up drew different lines and told different stories — and every one of them is a valid answer to this activity.
Did you know? The very same seven stars are the Saptaṛiṣhi (seven sages) in India, the Great Bear in Europe, the Plough in Britain and a boat to fishermen on the Konkan coast.