Looks like I’m not the only one…
I love stargazing with and without scopes/binoculars. When I go out to just stare into infinity thinking deep thoughts, I invariably look to Orion. To me that just seems to be where “it” is.
Summer: Orion because it’s so imposing. It’s my winter friend. And it’s kind of the crossroads for the winter sky: Gemini, Procyon, Sirius, Aldebaran, etc.
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die…
Winter: Sagittarius because it looks like a little teapot and that it has so many cool deep space objects. It’s also in the direction of the center of the galaxy so I can muse on that as well. Kind of peaceful to be out here in the Outer Rim, tens of thousands of light years from the Empire.
Looking up at the moon and then at the stars is almost always the first thing I do when I walk out of the house after dark. There is an absolute sense of peace and tranquility in it, even if it only lasts for a moment or two.
I have to go along with the Orion crowd. I’m not a sophisticated star watcher, but I have fond memories of camping in the desert and watching Orion slide across the sky.
My other favorite Constellation would be the Lockheed one.
One thing I miss about living in the US is being able to drive along the Interstate all night, strapped into the driver’s seat with the dashboard glowing in the dark, and just the immediate road before me lit up … the radio pulling in stations on the other side of the continent … and then pulling off and stopping on an overpass in the middle of nowhere … hearing the distant whine of traffic and seeing the faint taillights of other vehicles … and then looking up and seeing the Milky Way shining overhead, with the whole sky blazing with stars. I feel like I’ve landed on the surface of another planet sailing through space.
Ten years ago, I was stargazing near the shore of the Baltic Sea late at night, and I caught a glimpse of what could only have been the International Space Station just before it disappeared into the Earth’s shadow. That was a sight I’ll never forget!
You’re right, of course. I always knew it as The Seven Sisters and separate from Taurus.
One of those excerpts from movies that ranks high with me! Thanks for sharing that! 
Another one for Orion (it is so characteristic, so front-and-center during its season) and its surrounding retinue with the Great Dog right on his heels, the Twins at his back, and Taurus with Aldebaran and the Pleiades in front;
Also Scorpio, partly because the major star arrangement is such that you go “oh, yeah, I can see that”, as opposed to “really, where the heck do you get that?”. Back in 1998 when hurricane Georges took out our power and gave us back the dark sky over this island, I recall walking out the front yard and looking up, pleased at recovering a starry night… and immediately recognizing Antares and the Scorpion.
Definitely Orion and the Big Dipper, because they’re so easy to find.
Crux. Because it’s ours and none of you Borealist mofos can see it. And using it to find South is a process, not an identification test.
And it has the Jewel Box and the Coalsack, so it’s a treat for anyone with an even halfway decent telescope.
Orion
Pleiades (Does this actually count as a constellation?)
Ursa Major
Ursa Minor
Cassiopeia
Technically, no. It’s an open star cluster located in the constellation Taurus. Because what most of us in this thread–myself included–have been describing are asterisms rather than constellations. For example, the Big Dipper is an asterism in the constellation Ursa Major. Like the Pleiades it’s also an open cluster. We’re just much closer.
We’re unashamedly not checking our hemispheric privilege
There’s some interesting coverage of Asterisms: Signposts in the Sky that may help with the distinction(s).
In the '70s Pops got interested in astronomy, which meant his progeny became interested in it too. One Christmas, we managed to scrape together enough to buy him a cheap telescope, which served him for quite a few years. The first time I saw Jupiter through it was a kind of revelation. Something I’d heard about all my life that is so very far away is *really there! * Well, it’s hard to explain and probably mundane to other people, but it was an amazing discovery to me.
Around that same time, I got interested in kites. When Pops pointed out Cygnus, I realized the body/wings looked just like a delta kite. It’s been my favorite constellation ever since. And Cassiopeia, which Pops showed us way before then.
Pops passed away last year. I found this quote online, which I printed out and put with a picture of him for his memorial. It’s very unscientific, I know, but it’ll always make me think of him whenever I read it:
“Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy.”
-Eskimo Saying
Cygnus has one of the best double stars: Alberio, which forms the “head” of the swan. It’s the color contrast that makes it so striking. Even a cheap telescope will split that double into its blue and gold components. One of my favorite objects in the sky along with Saturn and M57, the Ring nebula.
The Ursa Major Moving Group is also significantly older than the Pleiades, so the stars have had more time to spread out.
Orion is my friend, too.
I can identify most of the constellations so far named in this thread, but Orion was my great grandfather’s given name. Every male born down line had/has the middle name of Orion. So we are naturally all familiar with the constellation.
When I traveled to the Southern Hemisphere and saw the night sky for the first time, I admit it was a little disorienting. I loved seeing the Southern Cross and appreciated seeing an unfamiliar view of the sky. But I was grateful when I finally spied Orion, low in the sky. He really was an old friend that night.
Delphinus I think I’m going to rename my sailboat after this one.
I’ve always been partial to Orion, ever since we learned about the constellations in third grade. It’s just so big and majestic and “out there.”
Also since a really dumb coworker thought it was named after some guy named O’Ryan.