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17-531: The Winter Hexagon or Winter Circle/Oval is an asterism appearing to be in the form of a hexagon with vertices at Rigel , Aldebaran , Capella , Pollux , Procyon , and Sirius . It is mostly upon the Northern Hemisphere 's celestial sphere . On most locations on Earth (except the South Island of New Zealand and the south of Chile and Argentina and further south), this asterism

34-462: A grouping of stars there was no distinct difference between a constellation and an asterism . For example, Pliny the Elder mentions 72 asterisms in his book Naturalis Historia . A general list containing 48 constellations likely began to develop with the astronomer Hipparchus (c. 190 – c. 120 BCE). As constellations were considered to be composed only of the stars that constituted the figure, it

51-455: Is also particularly easy to locate, being a shoulder of Orion , which assists stargazers in finding the triangle. Once the triangle is located, the larger hexagon may then be found. Several of the stars in the hexagon can also be found independently by following various lines traced through the stars in Orion . The stars in the hexagon are parts of six constellations. Counter-clockwise around

68-407: Is visible in the evening sky at the equator from approximately December to June, and in the morning sky from July to the end of November, while in the evenings on the northern hemisphere it is less months visible between December and June, and on the southern hemisphere less months between July and November. In the tropics and southern hemisphere, this (then called "summer hexagon") can be extended with

85-861: The Carina Nebula and near the Large Magellanic Cloud (both being first-magnitude deep-sky objects), Achernar in the Eridanus constellation east of Canopus, Fomalhaut in the Southern Fish constellation east of Achernar and Antares in the Scorpius constellation visually near the Galactic Center . Some asterisms refer to portions of traditional constellation figures. These include: Other asterisms are also composed of stars from one constellation, but do not refer to

102-579: The area surrounding South Celestial Pole . Many of these proposed constellations have been formally accepted, but the rest have remained as asterisms. In 1928, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) precisely divided the sky into 88 official constellations following geometric boundaries encompassing all of the stars within them. Any additional new selected groupings of stars or former constellations are often considered as asterisms. However, technical distinctions between

119-535: The bright star Canopus in the south. Smaller and more regularly shaped is the Winter Triangle , an approximately equilateral triangle that shares two vertices (Sirius and Procyon) with the larger asterism. The third vertex is Betelgeuse , which lies near the center of the hexagon. These three stars are three of the ten brightest objects , as viewed from Earth, outside the Solar System . Betelgeuse

136-470: The dots" can be used as a metaphor to illustrate an ability (or inability) to associate one idea with another—to find the "big picture", or salient feature, in a mass of data; it can mean using extrapolation to solve a mystery from clues, or else come to a conclusion from various facts. The Connect the Dots drawing technique of GPS Drawing involves recording an artists GPS data only at certain points along

153-454: The goal is not to draw a picture, but to solve a logic puzzle . The emergence of connect the dots games in the printed press takes place in the early 20th century. These games were published with other puzzle games as pastime for children on the Sunday edition . While the first books containing connect the dots games exclusively were printed in 1926 by Ward, Lock & Co . The phrase "connect

170-483: The hexagon, starting with Rigel, these are Orion , Taurus , Auriga , Gemini , Canis Minor , and Canis Major . Asterism (astronomy) An asterism is an observed pattern or group of stars in the sky . Asterisms can be any identified pattern or group of stars, and therefore are a more general concept than the 88 formally defined constellations . Constellations are based on asterisms, but unlike asterisms, constellations outline and today completely divide

187-750: The particular perspectives of their observations. For example the Summer Triangle is a purely observational physically unrelated group of stars, but the stars of Orion's Belt are all members of the Orion OB1 association and five of the seven stars of the Big Dipper are members of the Ursa Major Moving Group . Physical associations, such as the Hyades or Pleiades , can be asterisms in their own right and part of other asterisms at

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204-599: The same time. In many early civilizations, it was common to associate groups of stars in connect-the-dots stick-figure patterns. Some of the earliest records are those of ancient India in the Vedanga Jyotisha and the Babylonians . Different cultures identified different constellations, although a few of the more obvious patterns tend to appear in the constellations of multiple cultures, such as those of Orion and Scorpius . As anyone could arrange and name

221-538: The sky and all its celestial objects into regions around their central asterisms. For example, the asterism known as the Big Dipper or the Plough comprises the seven brightest stars in the constellation Ursa Major . Another asterism is the triangle , within the constellation of Capricornus . Asterisms range from simple shapes of just a few stars to more complex collections of many stars covering large portions of

238-409: The sky. The stars themselves may be bright naked-eye objects or fainter, even telescopic, but they are generally all of a similar brightness to each other. The larger brighter asterisms are useful for people who are familiarizing themselves with the night sky. The patterns of stars seen in asterisms are not necessarily a product of any physical association between the stars, but are rather the result of

255-488: The terms 'constellation' and 'asterism' often remain somewhat ambiguous. Some asterisms consist completely of bright first-magnitude stars , which mark out simple geometric shapes. Other asterisms consist partially of multiple first-magnitude stars. All other first-magnitude stars are the only such stars in their asterisms or constellations, with Canopus in the Argo Navis asterism south of Sirius, visually east of

272-436: The traditional figures. Other asterisms that are formed from stars in more than one constellation. Asterisms range from the large and obvious to the small, and even telescopic. Connect-the-dots The roots of connecting dots to create pictures or help with calligraphy can be traced back to the 19th century. The Nine Dots Puzzle is the first known puzzle game where the player has to connect dots. But in this variant

289-546: Was always possible to use any leftover stars to create and squeeze in a new grouping among the established constellations. Exploration by Europeans to other parts of the globe exposed them to stars previously unknown to them. Two astronomers particularly known for greatly expanding the number of southern constellations were Johann Bayer (1572–1625) and Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (1713–1762). Bayer had listed twelve figures made out of stars that were too far south for Ptolemy to have seen. Lacaille created 14 new groups, mostly for

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