The Constellations Imaginary Figures in the Sky Switch to Northern Hemisphere View The Saucepan For observers in the southern hemisphere, Orion passes high across summer evening skies, upside down. Instead of the mythical figure, many see the constellation as a saucepan framed by a quadrilateral of bright stars. Astronomers use the constellations to divide the sky into convenient sized areas for study. The bright stars in the constellations are often linked by straight lines to form distinctive figures. There are several ways of drawing the figures. Many observers create their own object location charts by sketching lines between brighter stars. With telescopes or binoculars, they step from star to star along such lines to arrive at difficult to locate objects.