Caption: A cartoon of the Ursa Major and surrounding constellations

In modern astronomical terminology, a constellation is a patch on the sky that contains the set of stars that traditionally made up the constellation.

There are IAU-defined 88 constellations recognized by modern astronomy. They tile the entire celestial sphere without overlap.

Thus, every astronomical object is located in exactly one constellation at one time.

Credit/Permission: © David Jeffery, 2005 / Own work.
Image link: Itself.
Local file: local link: constellation_region.html.
File: Constellation file: constellation_region.html.