ASTERISM

An asterism is a recognizable pattern of stars. Some are commonly used to identify a constellation. Examples are Orion’s belt or Ursa Major’s Big Dipper. Other lesser known examples are Sagittarius’ tea pot and Vulpecula’s ‘coathanger’. An asterism does not have to lie in one constellation. For example the ‘Great Square of Pegasus’ has three corner stars in Pegasus and one in Andromeda.