An asterism is a star or stars that have been identified and named. The people of the world come from a variety of social, educational, and cultural backgrounds. This means that even though they are looking up at exactly the same stars that you are, they see different patterns than you. Even within your own culture there will be differences. People have used the sky as:

This World Asterisms Project is a living project started in June 2021 by the Inclusivity and Diversity Committee of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada as a celebration of the sky cultures of the world: It continues to grow as the process of naming the stars above is an ongoing process. It is also growing as ethnoastronomers and researchers investigate old records and interview elders and recover previously lost sky cultures. We are stewards of these records and are using the “Two Eyes Seeing” approach pioneered by members of our Halifax Centre of the RASC in their ongoing partnership with the Mi’kmaq people to recover their sky lore: the shared perspectives of astronomers and knowledge keepers. We are doing our best to avoid exonyms and use the names these people use for themselves. We are identifying the asterisms here and whenever possible directing people to representatives of the cultures involved for information on the sky stories or dream lines related to those asterisms.

Charles Ennis is the Past National President of the RASC and a member of their Sunshine Coast Centre. He is the founder of the World Asterisms Project. He is a very active astronomy educator and ethnoastronomer and the writer/host or director/producer of astronomical videos such as Eastlink TV’s Night Lights, the RASC’s Insider’s Guide to the Galaxy, the short Bravo documentary Starry Nights, and various other YouTube videos on astronomy.