Astronomy utilizes a wide range of semiotic resources (graphs, language, images, mathematics, etc.) in its processes of creating and communicating disciplinary knowledge (Kress et al., 2001). These semiotic resources usually work together to give holistic access to disciplinary meanings, in a multifaceted way. Building on this idea, Airey & Linder (2009) have proposed the concept of a critical constellation of semiotic resources or modes (figure 1). The concept of critical constellations describes the idea that semiotic resources that represent knowledge in various ways, give access to different aspects of disciplinary knowledge. Consequently, this means that it is impossible to experience disciplinary knowledge holistically by becoming fluent in one semiotic system alone (Airey & Linder, 2009). Therefore, for someone to become an expert astronomer, it is necessary to become fluent across different semiotic systems: from handling mathematical expressions to writing and understanding code and visually inspecting and interpreting complex astronomical images (figure 2). In this paper, we aim to analyze how different semiotic resources in astronomy can be used in orchestration (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001), so that their individual affordances complement each other to create a collective affordance (Linder, 2013) that makes disciplinary meaning accessible – what Lemke (2005) has described as multiplying meaning. We will do so by presenting examples of critical constellations of different resources (galaxy images, galaxy rotation curves and the Cosmic Microwave Background map) that occurred in our data collection for our project regarding knowledge creation and mediation with different representations in higher education astronomy.