A constellation is any one of the 88 areas into which the sky, or the celestial sphere, is divided. The term is also traditionally and less formally used to denote a group of stars visibly related to each other in a particular configuration or pattern.
Some well-known constellations contain striking and familiar patterns of bright stars. Examples are the Southern Cross (Crux), Orion (the Hunter), Gemini (the Twins), Scorpius (the Scorpion) and Sagittarius (the Archer). Other constellations do not encompass any discernible star patterns, and contain only faint stars.
There are other labels for the constellations that are different from the basic Greek labels we use for the star patterns. These names are found in Chinese astronomy and the native Aboriginal tribes that covered the Australian land. There are details of these on the world wide web for those interested.
This picture shows the southern sky in March looking to the north an hour or two after sunset. here you can see I've included the constellations and their boundaries. The boundaries are to assist in locating less visible objects such as planets, faint stars, comets and asteroids.
As you can see from the picture Saturn is visible in the consellation of Leo for the month of March 2007. Saturn is not a faint object and can be seen as one of the brightest objects in Leo. Later in the year the planet will fade as the Earth moves faster around the sun than Saturn and the distance between us will grow.
A full list of the 48 ancient and 88 modern constellations can be found at THE CONSTELLATIONS
Cool software that turns your computer screen into a planetarium can be found here.
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 Getting Started in Astronomy |