Northern Sky
31 constellations
Ursa Major
The Great Bear. Contains the Big Dipper asterism, one of the most recognizable patterns in...
Cassiopeia
The Queen. Forms a distinctive W or M shape depending on the season. Circumpolar for most ...
Cygnus
The Swan, also called the Northern Cross. Deneb is one of the vertices of the Summer Trian...
Lyra
The Lyre. Anchored by Vega, the fifth brightest star in the night sky. Vega was the pole s...
Andromeda
The Princess, daughter of Cassiopeia. The Andromeda Galaxy M31 is the farthest object visi...
Pegasus
The Winged Horse. The Great Square of Pegasus is a prominent autumn asterism. Markab, Sche...
Ursa Minor
The Little Bear. Contains Polaris, the current North Star. Polaris is less than one degree...
Bootes
The Herdsman or Bear Driver. Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern celestial hemi...
Auriga
The Charioteer. Capella is the sixth brightest star, actually a quadruple star system. Cap...
Draco
The Dragon. Winds between the Big and Little Dippers. Thuban was the pole star during the ...
Hercules
The Hero. The Keystone asterism forms the body. M13, the Great Globular Cluster, contains ...
Perseus
The Hero who rescued Andromeda. Algol, the Demon Star, was the first recognized eclipsing ...
Sagitta
The Arrow. The third smallest constellation. Despite its tiny size, it was known to the an...
Delphinus
The Dolphin. A small but distinctive constellation with a diamond-shaped pattern called Jo...
Triangulum
The Triangle. One of the smallest constellations but ancient, listed by Ptolemy. Contains ...
Corona Borealis
The Northern Crown. A semicircle of stars forming a distinctive crown pattern. Alphecca is...
Camelopardalis
The Giraffe. Introduced by Petrus Plancius in the early 1600s to fill a large, faint area ...
Canes Venatici
The Hunting Dogs, held on a leash by Bootes. Introduced by Johannes Hevelius in the late 1...
Cepheus
The King, husband of Cassiopeia and father of Andromeda in Greek myth. One of Ptolemys 48 ...
Coma Berenices
Berenices Hair. Named after Queen Berenice II of Egypt, who offered her hair to the gods f...
Lacerta
The Lizard. Introduced by Johannes Hevelius in the late 1600s to fill a gap between Cygnus...
Leo Minor
The Little Lion. Introduced by Johannes Hevelius in the late 1600s, lying between Leo and ...
Lynx
The Lynx. Introduced by Johannes Hevelius in the late 1600s. He named it Lynx because its ...
Vulpecula
The Little Fox. Introduced by Johannes Hevelius in the late 1600s as the fox with the goos...
Big Dipper
The most famous asterism, formed by the seven brightest stars of Ursa Major. Merak and Dub...
Little Dipper
Seven stars of Ursa Minor forming a smaller dipper with Polaris at the end of the handle. ...
Summer Triangle
A giant triangle joining Vega in Lyra, Deneb in Cygnus, and Altair in Aquila, overhead on ...
Great Square of Pegasus
A huge, nearly square frame of stars that anchors the autumn sky. Three corners belong to ...
Northern Cross
The main stars of Cygnus the Swan read as a bold cross. Deneb marks the head, Sadr the int...
The Keystone
Four stars of Hercules form a lopsided quadrilateral shaped like the wedge stone of an arc...
Quadrans Muralis
The mural quadrant, created by Johannes Hevelius in 1687 between Bootes, Draco, and Hercul...