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OK - But they only scratch at the surface. See my comment on the SAC-list. The sed.org-link has even fewer asterisms.

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This is an interesting discussion. I suspect part of the issue here is that particularly once you get beyond the "obvious" asterisms (if it even makes sense to call them that) you're really in a realm where there are -- from individual to individual -- simply different abilities or tendencies to see such patterns: probably there are people who are more prone to see or pick out lots of asterisms than others ... and this is why there may be more definitive lists of, say, planetary nebulae than of asterisms ... or why the lists are lengthier.

I think it (the pattern-making tendency) says something fundamental about the way one's brain tends to work (or in the case of someone who doesn't or can't see or take pleasure in them, about the way one's brain tends to NOT work).

Anyway, that's something that occurred to me reading this thread. I for one enjoy simply pushing my Dob from place to place in the sky, letting figures, letters and pictures form as they will, out of the stars in the field of view. It's fun, and less stressful sometimes than chasing down that elusive DSO!

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8" Discovery DHQ
Celestron C102-HD
9x63 Orion mini-giants
(2) Frontally-placed visual organs, incl. lens, vitreous/aqueous humors, assorted rods, cones.

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