In Depth |
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The region of Pegasus
and Andromeda is still of interest, because the
Great Andromeda Galaxy is still visible to the
unaided eye just north of the star chain of
Andromeda if your sky is dark. To the south,
Cetus the whale boasts two second magnitude
stars - strangely, many astronomers miss this
beast, focusing instead on more famous star
groups. Faint patterns like Pisces hold little
for casual lookers, but Aries the ram has a
bright star ("Hamal") and is easier to spot.
Making a goat out of maybe four stars is less
obvious. In the north, the "W" of Cassiopeia
is unmistakable - sweep east of it to locate
Mirfak, the brightest star in Perseus. You'll
know you've arrived because Mirfak has a "fan
club": dozens of glittering fainter stars that
surround it and form an important star forming
region of our galaxy.
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Continuing along the milky way from Perseus, we encounter the real gems of the winter. Auriga the chariot driver is marked by Capella, the sixth brightest star, and contains many interesting star clusters for small telescopes. Moving just south of Auriga we encounter Taurus the bull, set apart by the vividly bright Pleiades cluster and the "V" shaped Hyades which surround the bull's angry orange eye star, Aldebaran. Orion's human outline is unmistakable just below the bull; look for reddish Betelgeuse in Orion's shoulder. Gemini follows these patterns, its twin stars Castor and Pollux similar in brightness by while Castor is white, Pollux is distinctly yellow - obviously, not identical twins! Lastly, Sirius and Procyon, the great and little "dog" stars, rise to complete the winter scene.
Remember, planets are not shown on this chart - for information about them, see our Planets This Month section.
Our Constellation feature this month is one of the most visually distinctive and well-known constellations: Taurus the bull. To explore, click on the "Featured Constellation" icon below.
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