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The January Night Skies The night skies of winter are famously bright with stars. People often think this is because the air is especially clear at this time of year. Its true dry winter air is more transparent than the humid hazes of summer, but theres a more important reason why we see brighter stars now. They really are brighter! The evening side of the Earth faces an especially star-rich region of space when Earth is on the January side of its orbit. In the midst of this huge panorama is a short, eye-catching line of three similarly bright stars in a diagonal row: the Belt of Orion, the Hunter. This is a winter landmark everyone ought to know. Orion is the boldest and brightest of all the constellations. The three belt stars and two other (Bellatrix and Saiph) shine about as bright as the stars of the Big Dipper. But added to these are two that are even brighter: blue-white Rigel, marking one of Orions feet, and gold-orange Betelgeuse, marking one shoulder. Rigel is a blue supergiant that pours out about 50,000 times as much light as out Sun. Most of Orions main stars, roughly 1,400 light-years away. Betelgeuse is nearer at about 500 light-years. Orion holds (what some consider the most magnificent telescopic sight beyond our solar system) M42, the Great Orion Nebula. Find M42 just under Orions Belt. Orion Nebula is a fabulously detailed tumult of ghostly traceries amid bright pinpoint stars. The March Night Skies The spring constellation most prominent is Leo, the Lion. Leo really does resemble the outline of a lion. His front part is formed by the hook of stars extending north from the bright star Regulus in his forefoot. This hook of stars- usually called the Sickle- represents Leos chest, mane and head. The sickle also called the backwards question mark. East of the sickle is a narrow right triangle of stars forming the Lions hindquarters and long tail. Another famous constellation of early spring, much dimmer than Leo is Cancer, the Crab, between Leo and Gemini. Cancers chief attraction is the huge star cluster labeled M44. Its bright enough to see with the naked eye as a dim, fuzzy patch if you have a clear, moonless evening at an observing site far from light pollution. M44 is also known as the Beehive Cluster, because in binoculars or a low-power, wide-field telescope, it looks like an old-fashion done-shaped beehive with many extra bees buzzing around it. The Mid-Summer Night Skies On July evenings, giant beasts and giant men stand on the north-south meridian of the sky. But even more fascinating than the mythology attached to these constellations are the sights we can see in them with modern optical aid. Brightest of the beasts is Scorpius, the Scorpion. This big, glittering curl of stars is rather low in the south for sky-watchers at our charts standard latitude, 40 degrees, north. The star that marks Scorpiuss heart. Antares, a 1st-magnitude red supergiant that shines distinctly orange-red. The name Antares is Greek for rival of Mars, a reference to the two objects similar fiery colors. Far to the lower left from Antares, the stinger of Scorpius offers a close pairing of bright stars sometimes called the Cats Eyes Lambda and Upsilon Scorpii. The beautiful summer Milky Way pours down from the huge Summer Triangle of Vega, Deneb, and Altair (high in the east) onto eastern Scorpius and western Sagittarius. Straight above Scorpius is the star pattern of Ophiuchus, the Serpent-Bearer. To either side of Ophiuchuss hands wriggle up parts of the constellations Serpens, the Snake. Sprawling and mostly dim, Ophiuchus has a fairly bright, 2nd-magnitude head- the star Alpha Ophiuchi, also known as Rasalhague. For centuries astrologer have proposed Ophiuchus as the thirteenth Zodiac Sign. Hercules does a headstand just above the head of Ophiuchus. Just north of Hercules foot is the four-star head of Draco, the Dragon. To see the rest of Draco properly at this time, you need to face north. The September Night Skies Get miles away from city light pollution in late summer and early fall and you can see the band of the summer Milky Way crossing the entire sky from north-northeast to south in dreamy magnificence. Its shown as only a vague band of dim glow on our map, barely hinting at the gorgeous reality visible in a dark sky. The Milky Way galaxy in which we live is a vast, flattened spiral of several hundred billion stars. We see the greatest concentration of distant Milky Way stars in a band completely encircling us. The brilliant center of our galaxy lies 26,000 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. Sagittarius is marked by the Teapot pattern, plotted low in the south. Almost overhead is the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. First-magnitude Deneb marks the Swans tail. Its head is Albireo, often considered the loveliest double star in the heavens. A black hole is near the center of this constellation, which is sometimes called the Northern Cross.