Asterisms are starpatterns. The constellation Cassiopeia is probably the well-known asterism in the night sky. Cassiopeia has an obvious “W” shape. Not all asterisms are as large as Cassiopeia, there are also lots of small patterns that are only visible through binoculars or telescopes. Unfortunately it’s pretty hard to find information about these small asterisms on the internet, so that’s why I started to make my own list. Hopefully this list is also useful to others.
I used a lot of resources making this list, like the internet, the Sky & Telescope, books, several atlases and my own observations.
The asterisms are ranged by constellation in alphabetical order. You will find a description of the object, the name (or names) and the positions (right ascension and declination). I haven’t seen all of these asterisms by myself yet, so I can’t guarantee that the information is 100% correct.
Click here to download the list with asterisms (PDF).
Last update: January 25, 2017