The backdrop for the motions of the "wanderers" in the sky is the canopy of stars. If there were no clouds in the sky and we were on a flat plain with nothing to obstruct our view, we could see about 3000 stars with the unaided eye. To find their way around such a multitude, the ancients found groupings of stars that made some familiar geometric pattern or (more rarely) resembled something they knew. Each civilization found its own patterns in the stars, much like a modern Rorschach test in which you are asked to discern patterns or pictures in a set of inkblots. The ancient Chinese, Egyptians, and Greeks, among others, found their own groupings or constellations of stars. These were helpful in navigating among the stars and in passing their star lore on to their children.

You may be familiar with some of the old star patterns we still use today, such as the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and Orion the hunter, with his distinctive belt of three stars (Figure 1). However, many of the stars we see are not part of a distinctive star pattern at all, and a telescope reveals millions of stars too faint for the eye to see. Therefore, during the early decades of the 20th century, astronomers from many countries decided to establish a more formal system for organizing the sky.

Figure: 1. Orion. (a) The winter constellation of Orion, the hunter, is surrounded by neighboring constellations, as illustrated in the seventeenth-century atlas by Hevelius. (b) A photograph shows the Orion region in the sky. Note the three blue stars that make up the belt of the hunter. The bright red star above the belt denotes his armpit and is called Betelgeuse (pronounced "Beetel-juice"). The bright blue star below the belt is his foot and is called Rigel. (credit a: modification of work by Johannes Hevelius; b: modification of work by Matthew Spinelli)

Today, we use the term constellation to mean one of 88 sectors into which we divide the sky, much as the United States is divided into 50 states. The modern boundaries between the constellations are imaginary lines in the sky running north-south and east-west, so that each point in the sky falls in a specific constellation, although, like the states, not all constellations are the same size. Whenever possible, we have named each modern constellation after the Latin translations of one of the ancient Greek star patterns that lies within it. Thus, the modern constellation of Orion is a kind of box on the sky, which includes, among many other objects, the stars that made up the ancient picture of the hunter. Some people use the term asterism to denote an especially noticeable star pattern within a constellation (or sometimes spanning parts of several constellations). For example, the Big Dipper is an asterism within the constellation of Ursa Major, the Big Bear.

Students are sometimes puzzled because the constellations seldom resemble the people or animals for which they were named. In all likelihood, the Greeks themselves did not name groupings of stars because they looked like actual people or subjects (any more than the outline of Washington state resembles George Washington). Rather, they named sections of the sky in honor of the characters in their mythology and then fit the star configurations to the animals and people as best they could.

List of The Constellations

Constellation (Latin name)	Genitive Case Ending	English Name or Description	Abbreviation	Approximate position:	Approximate Position:
Andromeda	Andromedae	Princess of Ethiopia	And	1	+40
Antila	Antilae	Air pump	Ant	10	-35
Apus	Apodis	Bird of Paradise	Aps	16	-75
Aquarius	Aquarii	Water bearer	Aqr	23	-15
Aquila	Aquilae	Eagle	Aql	20	+5
Ara	Arae	Altar	Ara	17	-55
Aries	Arietis	Ram	Ari	3	+20
Auriga	Aurigae	Charioteer	Aur	6	+40
Bootes	Bootis	Herdsman	Boo	15	+30
Caelum	Cael	Graving tool	Cae	5	-40
Camelopardus	Camelopardis	Giraffe	Cam	6	+70
Cancer	Cancri	Crab	Cnc	9	+20
Canes Venatici	Canum Venaticorum	Hunting dogs	CVn	13	+40
Canis Major	Canis Majoris	Big dog	CMa	7	-20
Canis Minor	Canis Minoris	Little dog	CMi	8	+5
Capricornus	Capricorni	Sea goat	Cap	21	-20
Carina1	Carinae	Keel of Argonauts' ship	Car	9	-60
Cassiopeia	Cassiopeiae	Queen of Ethiopia	Cas	1	+60
Centaurus	Centauri	Centaur	Cen	13	-50
Cepheus	Cephei	King of Ethiopia	Cep	22	+70
Cetus	Ceti	Sea monster (whale)	Cet	2	-10
Chamaeleon	Chamaeleontis	Chameleon	Cha	11	-80
Circinus	Circini	Compasses	Cir	15	-60
Columba	Columbae	Dove	Col	6	-35
Coma Berenices	Comae Berenices	Berenice's hair	Com	13	+20
Corona Australis	Coronae Australis	Southern crown	CrA	19	-40
Corona Borealis	Coronae Borealis	Northern crown	CrB	16	+30
Corvus	Corvi	Crow	Crv	12	-20
Crater	Crateris	Cup	Crt	11	-15
Crux	Crucis	Cross (southern)	Cru	12	-60
Cygnus	Cygni	Swan	Cyg	21	+40
Delphinus	Delphini	Porpoise	Del	21	+10
Dorado	Doradus	Swordfish	Dor	5	-65
Draco	Draconis	Dragon	Dra	17	+65
Equuleus	Equulei	Little horse	Equ	21	+10
Eridanus	Eridani	River	Eri	3	-20
Fornax	Fornacis	Furnace	For	3	-30
Gemini	Geminorum	Twins	Gem	7	+20
Grus	Gruis	Crane	Gru	22	-45
Hercules	Herculis	Hercules, son of Zeus	Her	17	+30
Horologium	Horologii	Clock	Hor	3	-60
Hydra	Hydrae	Sea serpent	Hya	10	-20
Hydrus	Hydri	Water snake	Hyi	2	-75
Indus	Indi	Indian	Ind	21	-55
Lacerta	Lacertae	Lizard	Lac	22	+45
Leo	Leonis	Lion	Leo	11	+15
Leo Minor	Leonis Minoris	Little lion	LMi	10	+35
Lepus	Leporis	Hare	Lep	6	-20
Libra	Librae	Balance	Lib	15	-15
Lupus	Lupi	Wolf	Lup	15	-45
Lynx	Lyncis	Lynx	Lyn	8	+45
Lyra	Lyrae	Lyre or harp	Lyr	19	+40
Mensa	Mensae	Table Mountain	Men	5	-80
Microscopium	Microscopii	Microscope	Mic	21	-35
Monoceros	Monocerotis	Unicorn	Mon	7	-5
Musca	Muscae	Fly	Mus	12	-70
Norma	Normae	Carpenter's level	Nor	16	-50
Octans	Octantis	Octant	Oct	22	-85
Ophiuchus	Ophiuchi	Holder of serpent	Oph	17	0
Orion	Orionis	Orion, the hunter	Ori	5	+5
Pavo	Pavonis	Peacock	Pav	20	-65
Pegasus	Pegasi	Pegasus, the winged horse	Peg	22	+20
Perseus	Persei	Perseus, hero who saved Andromeda	Per	3	+45
Phoenix	Phoenicis	Phoenix	Phe	1	-50
Pictor	Pictoris	Easel	Pic	6	-55
Pisces	Piscium	Fishes	Psc	1	+15
Piscis Austrinus	Piscis Austrini	Southern fish	PsA	22	-30
Puppis2	Puppis	Stern of the Argonauts' ship	Pup	8	-40
Pyxis3 (=Malus)	Pyxidus	Compass of the Argonauts' ship	Pyx	9	-30
Reticulum	Reticuli	Net	Ret	4	-60
Sagitta	Sagittae	Arrow	Sge	20	+10
Sagittarius	Sagittarii	Archer	Sgr	19	-25
Scorpius	Scorpii	Scorpion	Sco	17	-40
Sculptor	Sculptoris	Sculptor's tools	Scl	0	-30
Scutum	Scuti	Shield	Sct	19	-10
Serpens	Serpentis	Serpent	Ser	17	0
Sextans	Sextantis	Sextant	Sex	10	0
Taurus	Tauri	Bull	Tau	4	+15
Telescopium	Telescopii	Telescope	Tel	19	-50
Triangulum	Trianguli	Triangle	Tri	2	+30
Triangulum Australe	Trianguli Australis	Southern triangle	TrA	16	-65
Tucana	Tucanae	Toucan	Tuc	0	-65
Ursa Major	Ursae Majoris	Big bear	UMa	11	+50
Ursa Minor	Ursae Minoris	Little bear	UMi	15	+70
Vela4	Velorum	Sail of the Argonauts' ship	Vel	9	-50
Virgo	Virginis	Virgin	Vir	13	0
Volans	Volantis	Flying fish	Vol	8	-70
Vulpecula	Vulpeculae	Fox	Vul	20	+25

This article is a derivative work of the creative commons share alike with attribution in [1].

Bibliography

[1] Fraknoi, Andrew, David Morrison, and Sidney Wolff. The Sky Above. In Astronomy 2e. Houston, Texas : OpenStax, 2022. The Sky Above