seen shapes in the stars hey there
stargazers Ondine regus astronomer for
the Cincinnati observatory and I'm James
all Barry director of the kike sola
planetarium in gainesville florida
we're here to help you find your way
around the sky
hey Dean have you seen the Big Dipper
the summer i have after all it's my
favorite constellation demons
laughing because he knows darn well the
Big Dipper is not a constellation
I know I know I just like messing with
you James the Big Dipper is only part of
a larger constellation called Ursa Major
or the big bear
so if it's not an official constellation
what do we call it like to call it an
asterism an asterism is basically just a
shape we see in the stars to help us
find our way around
think of it as an unofficial
constellation and summertime is a great
time to find many of the asterisms in
the sky
exactly who got the summer terrible the
fish hook and the teapot
well let's show you ok we have our sky
set up for any night this week facing
north west after sunset
now that we're into July the sunsets
really late so use this as an excuse to
stay up past your bedtime
definitely because we want you to find
your first asterism of the evening up in
the north western sky
there it is standing on its spoon the
Big Dipper the formation of those seven
bright stars is unmistakable
4 stars make the spoon of the Big Dipper
and three more makeup the handle
now where's that big bear that I'll turn
my asterism into a constellation
haha i see it now Ursa Major the Big
Bear takes up a lot of space in the sky
the Big Dipper is only the rear end and
long tail of the bear while other
fainter stars Mark his head and feet
astronomers don't just stop there to
them everything within this boundary
every star every deep space object is
part of the constellation Ursa Major
wow that's a big bear
now we're facing east and here you can
find another huge ass tourism in the sky
I'll give you two hints it's up all
summer and it's in the shape of a
triangle
yep we call it the summer triangle who
said astronomy was tough to follow
brightest and blues to the 3 stars in
the summer triangle is Vega down into
the left is Delta and way over to the
right is all tear each of these stars
belongs to its own constellation vega is
part of liar of the harp
who stars make a little parallelogram
Deneb is the tale of Cygnus the Swan who
I can actually picture a swan and those
stars and all tear is the eagle eye of
the constellation aquila the eagle
so this asterism the summer triangle
really incorporates three regions of
three different constellations
now let's face south and look low on the
horizon for two more distinct asterisms
here we find the stars I most associate
with summer looking like the letter j or
a big fish look ad in The Fader stars
around the fish hook and you'll see the
constellation scorpius the Scorpion at
the heart of the Scorpion you find a red
supergiant star called and Terry's as an
added special effect and terry's is
often low in the southern sky and
appears to flicker like a beating heart
through the thicker atmosphere the
planets Mars and Saturn are also hang
around scorpius's summer now to the left
of the fishhook you can find stars in
the shape of a teapot these stars are
part of a larger constellation called
Sagittarius the Archer
he's a centaur half man half horse with
his legs down below the horizon for most
people in the US
other than the teapot the remaining
stars in sagittarius are tough to find
but the asterism marks the center's body
and out stretch bow and arrow
what's the aiming at and Tory's the
heart of the Scorpion of course
watch out Scorpius so find your favorite
asterism tonight from the Big Dipper in
the northwest to the summer triangle
high in the east to the fish hook in the
South next to the teapot and it's all
there when you keep looking up