The Constellations Imaginary Figures in the Sky Switch to Southern Hemisphere View Orion The Hunter From mid latitudes in the northern hemisphere, the striking figure of Orion the Hunter strides across the southern sky in the winter evenings. With club raised high and animal skin shield held before him, he struggles perpetually with Taurus the Bull for a position in the Zodiac. 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.