Editing 66: Abusive Astronomy

An asterism is a pattern of stars which form some sort of perceived shape in the night sky. Some of these are patterns are used to name regions of the sky, as constellations. Modern astronomy organises the sky into 88 constellations, but different cultures saw different patterns in the same night sky, going back at least as far as the Babylonians and there are many other patterns and grouping of stars. The {{w|Pleiades}}, {{w|Orion's belt}} and the {{w|Big Dipper}} are among the most common asterisms that we recognize today and are among the first taught to people with an interest in astronomy. The Pleiades is an open star cluster in the constellation of Taurus, it is a group of stars which formed from the same nebula, and are moving together. Orion's belt consists of three stars which appear close in the sky, but are in fact at great distance from each other. The Big Dipper is part of the constellation Ursa Major. It can be used to help find the north pole star {{w|Polaris}} which is an aid to night-time navigation.

During planetarium tours, the tour guide will point out popular constellations and stars, sometimes they will ask a question to get the audience involved in the presentation. Usually these people are big on showing the wonder of the galaxy and are all smiles, but people have bad days. The comic is presenting an especially aggressive way of introducing the night sky.  

When astronomers in the Northern Hemisphere are showing stars to people, there will frequently be someone who points to the Pleiades and says, "There's the Big Dipper!" (both appear as a trapezium of stars, with a handle, though the Pleiades is much smaller). This gets frustrating about the 100th time that you encounter this error. So, this comic could show someone releasing their frustration on the misinformed public by pointing out that what they just pointed at is actually the Pleiades. Then, pointing out that you can always locate the Pleiades by following the line of the stars in the belt of Orion. Then, pointing out the REAL Big Dipper.