Free asterism guide

How to find the Plough by its bowl and handle.

The Plough is an asterism: a familiar star pattern within the larger constellation Ursa Major. Its seven main stars make a clear bowl with a curved handle, giving northern observers an excellent shape to learn first.

The pattern to recognise

Four stars make a four-sided bowl. From one corner, three more stars curve away as the handle. The Plough can appear at different angles as the sky turns, but the bowl-and-handle relationship stays the same. It is not itself a constellation; it is part of Ursa Major, the Great Bear.

What a bright sky changes

The seven principal stars are relatively bright, so the basic outline can remain useful from light-polluted places. Bright skies reduce contrast and erase fainter surrounding stars, making it harder to see the wider bear. Keep your attention on the compact bowl and handle rather than expecting the whole constellation to show.

Practise before you look up

Bortle Bounded breaks the Plough into a learnable pattern, then lets you practise without labels or guide lines. It is one of the free lessons, with views for brighter and darker skies. Sky Lens provides a predicted guide from time, place and, in Compass and Live, the way your phone points; it does not identify stars from camera images.