The Big Dipper is not a constellation!

Neither is the Little Dipper, Scorpio, nor most of the other identifiable shapes in the night sky. They are actually "asterisms". From Wikipedia, a constellation is:

"a group of stars that are connected together to from a figure or picture. The term is also traditionally and less formally used to mean any group of stars visibly related to each other, if they are considered as a fixed configuration or pattern in a particular culture."

And an asterism is:

"a pattern of stars seen in Earth's sky which is not an official constellation."

You can start here 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_dipper to start learning the truth.

I just thought it was interesting. Happy New Year!