How were astronomers able to connect the lines bewteen stars to make them constellations?

I am very curious to know how for example the stars that make up "Hercules" were chosen to make that certain (i don't know what to call it). There are so many other different ones like Pisces, Taurus etc... Why, How and when where they chosen to be a ceratin object? animal? Thanks.How were astronomers able to connect the lines bewteen stars to make them constellations?Apart from what Geoff siad, the large and commonly-known constellations in the north and towards the south, such as Hercules, Cassiopeia and Sagittarius, were arranged by ancient astronomers. Starting from the 1600s, European astronomers began filling in teh gaps between the larger ones, leading to such gems as Scutum (the shield of the Polish king Stephan Sobieski).



That century and into the 1700s, exploration reached the southern hemisphere. The far southern constellations were named initially after birds of paradise and exotic animals that had recently been discovered, even if they bore no resemblance. Chameleon is a very narrow diamond, Apus the bird of paradise looks like a tiny kite with a long tail, and Musca (the fly) is a loose cluster of stars south of the Southern Cross.



Then the French got involved. Well, you know how pedantic they are. The leading French astronomer in the south named small areas of the sky that hadn't been claimed, mainly because the stars were so faint, after recent inventions. Antlia (the air pump), Horologium (the clock) and Caelum (the chisel) are hard to see even in a dark sky.



When the constellations were codified in the 1920s, the old constellations were used, but the boundaries of them were defined along lines of right ascension and declination (in the same way as the lower 48 are often bounded by the straight lines of latitude and longitude).How were astronomers able to connect the lines bewteen stars to make them constellations?Most of the constellations were "created" by ancient peoples, most of whom believed in all kinds of gods who lived in the sky. The constellations we have today are the result of imagination by those long-ago people who saw various shapes and forms when imaginary lines were connected between certain stars.



Personally, I've never been able to see a single figure in any of the constellations, like Orion the Hunter.How were astronomers able to connect the lines bewteen stars to make them constellations?It was well over a thousand years ago by people that never called themselves astronomers. Probably by hunters sitting by their campfires. Don't forget, back then there was no light pollution other then the aforementioned campfires and moonlight. The sky was very much darker then, and the constellations were so much more easier to see! They were much more obvious then the pale imitation that you look at these days.How were astronomers able to connect the lines bewteen stars to make them constellations?
Stars are distributed more or less at random across the sky. Human beings have a tendency to look for patterns in things, even if there is no underlying order. The constellation patterns are completely arbitrary, and vary from one astronomer to another, and from one book or chart to another.