How does a constellation help with navigation?

does the constellation scutum help with navigation or agricultureHow does a constellation help with navigation?Not a lot. For those purposes it's entirely worth ignoring.

It's a very small and dim constellation in the bright star fields of the Milky Way just north of Sagittarius and a bit south of Aquila the Eagle which has a fine first magnitude navigational star called Altair.

Even the brightest couple of stars of Scutum can get lost easily amongst the bright star fields they hang around with so for navigation it's a dud, especially since Altair is so close and another great navigational star called Antares, the red-ish star in Scorpio, is not so far away either, about the same distance from Scutum but in the opposite direction to Altair.

It's at it's highest in July and August late evenings so if you want to try finding it that would be a good time.

Here's a map of it. You can see Antares and Altair marked, with Scutum lying between them.

http://www.rasnz.org.nz/Stars/Scutum.htm . . . ..

For agriculture I can't think of a single use that the tiny Scutum has that isn't done better by the brighter constellations around it.

Antares can be a useful date reminder for northern Europe and the more northerly states of the USA since it rises only a few degrees above the southern horizon and when it does so in the early evening that's when the crops are getting close to harvesting time.

It's due south at midnight on the 1st of June, at 10pm on 1st July, and 8pm on 1st August so you don't see much f the rising period then and you don't get long seeing it on the rest of it's small arc across the sky.

As a navigational star however it's a very important one and as a star with a long history and mythology through many cultures it's also very well blessed.

This site has some astrological descriptions but also records the history of Antares through the ages.

http://www.constellationsofwords.com/sta鈥?/a> . . . . . .

http://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/anta鈥?/a> . . . . .

Antares stands out very well and is very easy to recognise in the sky.

Scutum doesn't and isn't. It's like trying to recognise a particular arrangement of three or four small pebbles on a beach made of nothing but pebbles.

Is the question actually meant to be a joke?

Scutum has some lovely sights in it's tiny area, including the delightfully named Wild Duck cluster.

For astronomers it's a little gem, but it isn't a constellation a navigator or a farmer would get any practical use from unless no other stars were visible (which considering the tiny size of the constellation would be very rare) and anyway there are few farmers who would know the constellation and only those navigators who do astronomy for a hobby would know it.

Some know more than just the navigational stars which are taught in navigation classes.

There are a couple of lesser constellations than Scutum for practical usefulness, like the tiny Equuleus.

About as useful for navigators and agriculturalists as an ash tray on a motorbike.

Here's some navigation....simple astronomy type further down. Just the Sun and the Moon.

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind鈥?/a> . . . . . .How does a constellation help with navigation?If you know your way around the sky any constellations can help a little with navigation for example I know that mid December around midnight Auriga will be very high to the south. The north star Polaris will give the most accurate navigation as it is always there (well, at night) and doesn't move unlike constellations, really, constellations aren't great at navigation unless you know the sky very well as it's constantly changing, but Polaris is the best and most reliable improvised navigation tool.How does a constellation help with navigation?Scutum is of no navigational help or in agricultural operations. Polaris is navigationally most important.

In south India (Andhra Pradesh) farmers (unsophisticated, semi-literate) track Sun's movement and for (monsoon) rain forecast. The Zodiac is divided into 27 Asterisms (Nakshatras) in Indian Astronomy to suit Moon's movement, wherein Moon spends a day in each Asterism to complete a Sidereal period of 27 days. This is the basis for tracking Sun's and planets movement also. Sun transits each for 13 1/2 days and the period is called 'Kaarte'.When Sun is near Pleiades ('Krttika') or Aldebaran ('Rohini') it is the peak of Summer. Similarly there are Kaartes associated with rains ('Mrgasira' = /\ Orionis for pre- monsoon showers, 'Ardra' = Betelgeuse, 'Punarvasu' = Castor %26amp; Pollux).