Asterisms

 

Until very recently, I thought that the patterns in the sky were called constellations. However, the word I keep coming across this week is "asterism". There are patterns that we see in the stars that are not constellations. One such is the Summer Triangle. Sadly, my picture only has two of the three stars in it! Another example would be the Plough which is only part of the constellation Ursa Major. So asterism is a more general term that includes constellations but also other patterns.