Anyone who enjoys gazing at the night sky probably has a few favorite star patterns they like to look for: The Big Dipper, for example, or Orion’s belt. But those familiar shapes that many of us ...

Arcturus (at a magnitude of -0.05), one of the few stars mentioned by name in the Bible, is a giant, about 25 times the ...

Many people grow up believing the Big Dipper is a constellation, but it’s not. It’s an asterism — a small, eye-catching, connect-the-dots pattern made of stars lying either within a single ...

The Big Dipper is an asterism in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear). One of the most familiar star shapes in the northern sky, it is a useful navigation tool. Asterisms are prominent ...

Most of us can spot the group of stars known as the Plough or the Big Dipper. But there’s more to explore here, says Abigail ...

The smaller constellation Leo Minor lies to the upper right (north) of Leo in the west this evening. Leo Minor appears ...

The Big Dipper is one of the most famous star groupings and one that nearly all stargazers instantly recognize. Notice I didn’t call it a “constellation,” because it’s not a constellation.