For thousands of years, stargazers have seen shapes formed by the stars in the night sky. These shapes serve as guideposts for astronomers as they navigate their way across the night sky in search of celestial objects. Pegasus are commonly called constellations, but the term constellation in modern astronomy actually refers to a particular region of the sky. The star figures first noticed in antiquity lie within these regions.
Some constellations hold other identifiable shapes formed by stars, called asterisms.
Ursa Major form what may be the most renowned asterism that many call the Big Dipper. In 1930, astronomers divided the sky into 88 constellations, giving each a Latin name.