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Winter Constellations
List of Winter Constellations in the
Northern Hemisphere
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Auriga
Caelum
Canis Major
Canis Minor
Carina
Colomba
Eridanus
Fomax
Gemini
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Horologium
Lepus
Monoceros
Orion
Pictor
Puppis
Reticulum
Taurus
Vela
Orion – The Hunter
• Orion is one of the
most beautiful
constellations in the
winter sky, which first
becomes visible
around the end of
August, and
eventually disappears
in the western horizon
at the end of March.
Finding Orion
• If you look toward the
east, you can easily
find Orion's belt three stars in a short,
straight line. The rest
of the constellation is
easy to find from
there.
Horsehead Nebula – Barnard 33
Nebula
• Distance-1500 LY
• Dimensions-1 LY
The most famous nebula is hidden just
below Alnitak. It appears just as a dense
cloud of gas and dusk, and is fairly
impossible to find…without a nice
telescope. 
The Horsehead Nebula
Auriga – The Charioteer
• Auriga forms a giant
pentagon in the
Northern sky, with the
Southern part
touching Taurus.
Finding Auriga
• To find Auriga, first
locate Orion.
• Taurus is to the right
(west) and just above
these two, much
higher in the sky, you
will see Capella.
• This star marks
roughly the mid-point
of the constellation,
north to south.
Capella – Double Star
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Distance-42 LY
Diameter-15 Million km
Luminosity-130 Suns
Capella marks the tip of the winter
pentagon, and dominates Auriga.
• It is one of the best known stars in the sky,
but is actually a pair of giant stars
separated by one hundred million km.
Capella the Double Star
Canis Major – The Large Dog
• Mid-winter in the
north is best time to
see it.
Finding Canis Major
• Canis Major is very easy to find in the
winter months.
• First locate Orion, and imagine a straight
line through his belt.
• Follow the line to the southeast, and you
will see Sirius perched right below it.
• Sirius is the nose of the dog.
• His body stretches to the southeast, and
his front leg is to the west of Sirius.
Sirius – Blue Giant Star
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Distance-8.6 LY
Diameter-2.5 Million km
Luminosity-22 Suns
By far, Sirius is the brightest star in the
sky.
• It is one of the closest stars to Earth, and
forms a famous couple with its companion,
Sirius B, which is a white dwarf which
revolves around it.
Sirius captured at dawn
Canis Minor – The Small Dog
• Canis Minor is very
small, and is bordered
by the Milky Way.
• It accompanies Orion
in his celestial winter
path.
• Its brightest star,
Procyon, is one of the
brightest in the sky
Finding Canis Minor
• Look toward the Southwest in the late
evening hours, and when you spot Orion,
find his shoulders: Bellatrix, his western
shoulder, and Betelgeuse, his eastern
shoulder.
• Make an imaginary line between the two
stars from Bellatrix to Betelgeuse, and
extend it outward toward the East.
• About three shoulder-widths away you will
nearly run into Procyon.
Procyon - Star
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Distance-11.4 LY
Diameter-2.8 Million km
Luminosity-7 Suns
It is the eighth brightest star in the sky,
only four LY away from Sirius.
• It is also a double star, revolved by a white
dwarf, Procyon B.
• The name means “before the dog”
because it rises in the east well before
Sirius.
Procyon
Gemini – The Twins
• Gemini forms a
rectangle north of
Orion, and just above
Canis Minor.
• It has been baptized
as the Winter
Hexagon by
astronomers.
Finding Gemini
• Gemini is located
above and to the left
of Betelgeuse.
• Once you have found
the stars Castor and
Pollux, the stars
which are the "heads"
of the twins, seeing
the rest of the
constellation is easy.
Gemini Cluster – Star Cluster M35
• Distance-2,200 LY
• Dimensions-30 LY
• Gemini Cluster is located just southwest of
the constellation.
• It is easily observable through binoculars
and looks like a silvery cloud.
• It is filled with red giants, 100s of times
brighter than the Sun.
The Gemini Cluster
Taurus – The Bull
• In Greek mythology,
Zeus took on the
appearance of Taurus
to kidnap the beautiful
Europa.
• The horns are tipped
by the stars Elnath
and Dzeta Tauri, and
the impulsive eye is
marked by Aldebaran,
a red giant.
Finding Taurus
• Taurus is an easy constellation to find.
• You can find it by following the way Orion's belt
stars point toward the right.
Pleiades – Star Cluster M45
• Distance-400 LY
• Diameter-30 LY
• The most famous and beautiful star cluster
is just north of Taurus.
• The brightest of these bluish stars are
perfectly visible to the unaided eye.
• All the stars in Pleiades were born about
the same time, about 70 Million years ago.
The Pleiades Star Cluster
Winter Meteor Showers
• Geminids
– December 13th
– 30 to 80 meteors per hour
• Quadrantids
– January 3rd
– 10 to 50 meteors per hour