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Is There a Standard for Constellation Patterns?

-- | December 8, 2013

Question: I’m Juliana, 25, a brazilian astronomy college student, and I’m curious about constellations. I know they’re regions in the sky, not really groups of stars, but they’re presented for the public as shapes of animals, Gods and objects, and these shapes are formed by certain stars, right? I have a doubt concerning these stars that form the shapes we all know, because everytime I look constellations up, I find different groups of stars forming those shapes, and I’d like to know if there’s an specific group of stars to be considered to form the shape and, if so, where I can find the “official” group of stars that form the shapes that represent the constellations. Can you help me? Thank you! — Juliana

Answer: Those patterns that you see on star maps which represent the shapes that give the name to the constellations are in fact not “official”. The International Astronomical Union, which is the governing body that defines which stars belong to which constellations, does not officially identify a particular pattern of stars with a constellation. They do, however, define all of the stars that belong to a given constellation, which is equivalent to defining all of the boundaries of the constellations by its boundaries on the sky. If you want to read more about how the IAU defines constellations and what the roster of stars is for each constellation, see the IAU Constellations page.

Jeff Mangum

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