The night sky

German names the sky with compounds that can be read rather than learned, which makes this one of the easiest specialist areas to enter. Die Sternschnuppe is a star and a snuffed candle; die Milchstraße is a milk road; die Tagundnachtgleiche says in one word that day and night are equal. Two constellations keep their everyday German names rather than their Latin ones — der Große Wagen is the Plough, and der Kleine Bär holds the pole star — and the German for a telescope is usually das Fernrohr, a far tube, before it is das Teleskop.