The most difficult thing about stargazing in Hoenn is telling the actual stars, especially those blue or purple in color, from the patterns of light woven through the sky by Illumise in flight. The reason Illumise make these patterns is unclear, but appears to be simple entertainment, for it has nothing whatsoever to do with mating or finding food, and if it distracts predators it is only because they watch in awe.
Hoenn is one of the few areas in the world which never developed a system of constellations, for in the dark of night, Illumise look like points of light who drift through the air like stars. The patterns Illumise weave, however, change dramatically from day to day, and only when astronomical texts filtered in from foreign lands was it understood that the so-called Red, Yellow, and White Illumise (along with many of the blue-purple ones) were actually not pokemon at all, but heavenly bodies located worlds away.
Yet although Hoenn lacked defined patterns with which to neatly divide up the night sky, Illumise gazing simply replaced stargazing, for the ancients still had little better to do in the dark of night. They drew pictures from the patterns they saw, looking nothing like what the Illumise intended and freely linking together Illumise and true stars. And they came out for much longer than did peoples of other lands, for although they could not find familiar constellations, the sky offered new displays each and every night.
At times, people sought to catch the Illumise, thinking their imagination superior to what nature could produce. And at times, when they were true visionaries, the Illumise even obeyed. In this era, on certain holidays, Illumise do not fly nature's patterns, but tell elaborate stories written in false starlight at their coordinator's command.