ISTR that “asterisms” is also the term of choice for a subset of stars within a larger constellation that form something recognizable (for various values of “recognizable”) themselves. Like the Big Dipper: it’s not properly a constellation, but rather an asterism within Ursa Major. Same with the Little Dipper: not a constellation, but an asterism in Ursa Minor. Same thing for Sagittarius’ aforementioned teapot, or the tiny little “wagon” of stars in the Pleiades.
Interesting fact: the stars that make up the Big Dipper asterism are themselves mostly gravitationally bound together, and are close enough to us to look widely spaced apart. They’re mostly moving through space together, so the larger shape of the Big Dipper generally won’t change much, even after millenia. (There’s a couple stars in there that aren’t part of the gravitationally bound group and are moving their own directions.)
Scorpius is pretty easy to see a scorpion in, but may have once been even easier. Two of the brightest stars in Libra at Scorpius’s “head” are named Zubeneschamali, (“northern claw”) and Zubenelgenubi (“southern claw”) in Arabic, from ancient times when Libra was sometimes viewed as part of Scorpius. So the scorpion once had claws.
An asterism need not be confined to one constellation: The Summer Triangle, for instance, consists of the brightest star of each of three different constellations.
Some other cultures see Scorpius as a snake. There is, in fact, that even in ancient Greece some viewed it as a snake. The snake is also perfectly consistent with that capital J-shape.
This was claimed in an article I once read: In numerous cultures, in both the eastern and western hemispheres, the seven stars of the Big Dipper are interpreted as a bear being tracked by three hunters - making this, perhaps, the most ancient of all oral traditions.
Interesting, though I can’t speak to the veracity of that. Of course, the Big Dipper is an asterism of the full constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear; I imagine the popularity of the myth is due to Ursa Major being visible to most of the northern hemisphere, due to its proximity to the north pole on the celestial sphere.
I expect that the seven stars of the Dipper are recognized as an entity by far more people, and far more cultures, than the entire constellation of Ursa Major.
