This was especially true with the constellations in the swath of the sky known as the zodiac. The position of these bright celestial objects, conceived to have been gods by ancient peoples, were thought to have influential powers on nations and the human condition. These misconceptions have continued to the present through the gullibility of the public and the entrepreneurship of astrologers. The 12 constellations of the zodiac are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces. At present, constellations represent an easy way of finding the general location of astronomical objects in the sky.
Constellations represent more than just the stars which compose the picture.
A constellation is an area of the sky with official boundaries, just like countries or the states possess. There is no prescribed method for connecting the stars to form the figure, so the pictures will often vary slightly depending upon the personal preferences of the celestial cartographer. To avoid the confusion of having the same constellation possessing different boundaries or different constellations overlapping the same regions of the sky, a special commission of the International Astronomical Union agreed in 1928 to the naming of 88 official constellations boundaries. These groupings of stars are called asterisms. The Big Dipper is an American asterism which composes the brightest portion of the constellation of Ursa Major, the great bear.