Constellation

From South Dublin Astronomical Society

An astronomical constellation is a grouping of stars that are given a designated name. Most of these constallations date back to ainchent times.

A constellation is an arbitrary grouping and has no scientific purpose, though they are still used by astronomers to indicate the area of sky where they are speaking of. For example our galaxy is considered to be part of the Virgo Cluster, simply because the group of galaxies in the cluster happens to lie in the constellation of virgo.

The stars in a constellation are typically the bright stars in that area, though in most cases the stars have no physical relationship. Some stars in the constellation may be many times further away from us than others.