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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. Its true dry winter air is more transparent than the
humid hazes of summer, but theres 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 Orions 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 Orions 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 Orions 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 Leos 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 Lions hindquarters and long tail. Another famous
constellation of early spring, much dimmer than Leo is Cancer, the Crab, between Leo and
Gemini. Cancers chief attraction is the huge star cluster labeled M44. Its 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 charts standard
latitude, 40 degrees, north. The star that marks Scorpiuss 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 Cats 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
Ophiuchuss 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. Its 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 Swans tail. Its 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.