Centaurus, because it contains our nearest stellar neighbour and the largest known star cluster

The big dipper. It's the first one I recognised as a small child.

the dippers because I can always recognize them

I like Centaurus too.

Orion and Southern Cross. The most obvious in the sky

Orion. I've it right in front of my balcony all winter :).

I think Orion, owing in big part to the Orion Nebula. It's a special point of interest in the sky because it's a naked-eye, binocular, and telescopic object - the same thing yields three different experiences based on how you observe it.

Orion due to the nebula inside it, and I have seen on both hemispheres.

Edit: alongside Ursa Major, easily recognisable and points to north star, and Cassiopeia easily recognisable, is it a wonky "W" or "M" though?

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Cassiopeia. Because when I can’t see the Big Dipper, I can still find the North Star.

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Mods will kick you out for commenting about asterisms in a constellation thread. ;)

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Same, also one of the easiest for me to spot with naked eye. Idk why I find it calming tho

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Cygnus. It actually looks a bit like the animal it represents, and I can visualise it flying along the line of the Milky Way.

Also a very handy tool for finding targets, of which there are plenty in that area!

Andromeda. It contains the Andromeda galaxy. And I can regularly see it at night. Second is Cygnus.

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Scorpio, easily recognisable with that long tail and bright Antares in the middle.

Too bad here is barely visible and can't enjoy it in its full might.

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Which one is your favorite?

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Do the Pleiades count? they are the first thing i look for.

I'll break with conventional norms and say the Little Dipper. That's right, the LITTLE Dipper. The big dipper can go bite buckets of fiddler crabs!

Reasons

Also called Ursa Minor. The little bear. As a Canadian I can tell you I would much rather fight a little bear than a big one. You'll want to trust me on this.

It is comprised of 7 stars. 7 is my favorite number. Polaris is one of two favorite stars. I'll leave you to wonder as to what the other might be.

Traditionally it has been important to navigation, particularly at sea, because of Polaris being the North Star. My dad, a former Seaman during WWII in the Merchant Navy, was the one who first drew my attention to the Little Dipper when I was a small boy in the 1960's. He sailed on munitions ships and oil tankers, all high prizes to the German Wolfpack submarines. It's a wonder I exist at all. How could Ursa Minor NOT be my favorite?

Call me a rebel, but there it is.

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Orion or the Big Dipper. Just because they’re familiar and easy to spot.

Gotta go with Orion. Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel, Saiph, Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka, along with M42, just make such a distinctive and recognizable pattern.

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>He sailed on munitions ships and oil tankers, all high prizes to the German Wolfpack submarines.

High prizes, true, but for most of the war the Ubootwaffe sank an amazingly small percentage of ships. Something like 99% of the ships sailing to and from the British Isles managed to do so without being sunk over the entire course of the war.

Even at their height, the percentage sunk by U-boats was still just 5 or 6%. And that height wasn't very long lasting.

For all the talk about the German U-boats, it was US submarines in the Pacific that actually did what Germany was trying to do: Bleed the enemy merchant shipping fleet dry.

Many good points, and thanks for the input. However, many merch ships from many countries were in fact sunk. Canada saw over 1600 seamen lost. My dad could easily have been among them. According the bbc.co.uk 30,248 merchant seamen lost their lives during World War Two, a death rate that was higher proportionately than in any of the armed forces.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652091.shtml

And high or low, I'm not sure percentages would really carry much weight with you when you're at sea during wartime, standing on a deck looking over the ocean, and you know there are giant metal torpedo-spitting sharks out there looking to ruin your day.

Allow me the one point of feeling lucky to be alive to have a favorite constellation.

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Orion. Its easy to spot and you see the brightest stars in the sky. And sirius is also next to it.

Being in the Southern Hemisphere it has to be the Southern cross, it's the only one that makes any sense. We call Orion the saucepan, his belt is the base of the saucepan. You would struggle to find anyone who could point out any other constellation.

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