Star pattern cards
Six cards to cut out: the Big Dipper, Orion, Cassiopeia, the Summer Triangle, Leo and the Pleiades, drawn from the stars' real positions. One Letter or A4 page; tap Print.
Star pattern cards
Cut out a card, take it outside, and hold it up to the sky. Bigger dots are brighter stars. Shapes are drawn from the stars' real positions.
Seven stars in a ladle. The two at the end of the bowl point to the North Star.
When: All year, in the north. High up on spring evenings, low near the ground on autumn evenings.
Three stars in a short straight row (the belt), with a red star above and a blue-white one below.
When: Winter evenings, December to March: south-east, then high in the south.
Five stars in a W (or an M, depending on the time of night).
When: All year, in the north. High up on autumn and early winter evenings, opposite the Big Dipper.
Three bright stars from three different constellations, in a big triangle. Vega is the brightest.
When: Summer and early autumn evenings, high overhead; low in the west by December evenings.
A backwards question mark (the sickle) ending in the bright star Regulus, and a triangle behind it.
When: Spring evenings, March to May, in the south; in winter it rises in the east around midnight.
A tiny, misty cluster like a very small dipper. Most eyes count six or seven stars.
When: Autumn and winter evenings: east after dark in November, high in the south in January.
peabody.kids/space · names only, as astronomers use them
About this sheet
Six of the easiest star patterns to find from the United States, each drawn from the real positions of its stars, with bigger dots for brighter stars, how to recognise it and when to look. Cut them out, take one outside, and hold it up to the sky in the direction the card says. Names only, as astronomers use them.
The other sheets
“Colour the Moon the way you see it tonight, not the way you think it should look.”