Useful Notes / Constellations

"I have... a terrible need... shall I say the word?... of religion. Then I go out at night and paint the stars."

— Vincent van Gogh

What is a constellation, exactly?

Well, it's just a Man's invention. Despite what some science fiction works will tell you, constellations do not exist in nature. When the ancient people observed the night sky, they noted that some stars make geometrical figures. Their vivid imagination led them to associating these figures with animals, objects, or legendary human characters. Apart from some rare exceptions, this resemblance is very debatable^note And even more so after the IAU defined their limits back in 1922 as mentioned below, without too much care about said associations.

As ancient people used to think the Sky was just a huge dome above the Earth, they made the mistake of thinking the stars within a constellation are actually close to each other. We modern people, too, tend to make this same error, even when accepting the sky is not a "celestial dome" but a boundless extension of space outside the Earth. Popular media contributes to all this, for example Sci-Fi stories telling us that a space traveler can easily go from one constellation to another with their spaceship. In actuality, constellations are just simple areas in the sky whose boundaries were definitively decided on in 1922 by an International Convention — before that, those boundaries were quite indistinct. Within each area, stars are not close to each other^note apart from those grouped in clusters, see below, or some exceptions like Ursa Major and Orion where some of the stars that form them share a common origin and their distances to us are similar; they aren't even at the same distance to us. One star that seems coupled with another in the sky can be 10 times farther from us than its neighbor. The typical figures of the constellations would totally disappear if we could go out of the Solar System and see, for example, the sky at a distance of 100 light years from Earth. All the visible stars in the sky pertain to our Galaxy, more precisely the galactic portion closest to the Solar System — the more distant stars visible without binoculars or a telescope are about 3,000 light years from here: the whole Galaxy is 100,000 light years wide.

Also note that the stars within a constellation are neither of the same luminosity, nor are they of the same color; two stars can appear to have the same brightness when one is actually producing 1,000,000 times more light than the other but is 1,000 times more distant^note Not 1,000,000 times; remember the Inverse Square Law. Colors vary from red to light blue, passing throughout orange, yellow (our Sun is yellow), and pure white — green stars do not exist. This coloration is tied to the temperature of the stars' surface: curiously, red stars are the "coldest" (about 4,000 C°), then the orange, yellow, white, and finally the hottest of them all, the blue ones (up to 40,000 C°). Our Sun is about 6,000 C°. Finally, it's worthy of note that the stars making the figure of a constellation do not appear with the same luminosity when live-observing, ^note  And, of course, there are NOT lines linking them, they are only a means in astronomy books to aid the reader to better memorize the figure, and different books can link the stars of a constellation in different ways. and that they are not the only stars of the constellations: they contain dozens and sometimes hundreds of other fainter stars visible to the naked eye, and millions more when watching with a telescope.

THE 88 CONSTELLATIONS

Only very few constellations are familiar to laymen. Most of them are known only by astronomers or space lovers. This is justified though, both because most constellations are faint and hard to recognize, and because even the brightest ones are difficult to see for a non-expert when living in a city or even in a town — we'll not talk here about the notorious light pollution. 48 constellations were invented by ancient Greek (even though many were already conceived before that, especially by ancient Babylonians), and made official in the second century A.D. by the famed astronomer Ptolemy. Obviously, they are mainly in the Northern celestial hemisphere. ^note The two celestial hemispheres do not coincide with the two terrestrial ones. People near the north and south poles of the Earth see only their respective celestial hemispheres and no more; on the other hand, an U.S. or European observer can also see some constellations that are below the celestial Equator, but certainly the northern ones are the easiest to see for her/him. The exact opposite for an Australian or South-African observer of course. People living near the terrestrial Equator are the only ones that can see the whole night sky. Since the 1600s, other astronomers have invented all the remaining 40 constellations, plus others that aren't today anymore (because they were not accepted by the International Convention above). Modernly-invented constellations are usually fainter than the classical ones, and were created to fill the "empty" areas in the sky which were not assigned to any constellation in ancient times — even though some were created by taking some stars away from ancient figures, for example Crux, the Southern Cross, which was originally part of a larger constellation called Centaurus, the Centaur.

Other than the common name, constellations also have their official Latin denomination. For example, the Great Bear becomes "Ursa Major" in Latin. Their stars are named by several means. The main ones are listed by Greek letters (the "Alpha" is usually, but not necessarily, the brightest) ^note In many constellations there's not a star clearly brighter than the others; in such cases the Alpha is often the star that signs the head of the human/animal character portrayed. The choice of the other stars named with the following letters (Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon etc.) tends to be merely arbitrary.; numbers, Latin letters, and acronyms are also used to list the stars in a constellation. These letters/numbers are always followed by the latin name of the constellation (with the Genitive form). The brightest / most notable stars have also their own name (usually Arabic, sometimes Greek or Latin). As a consequence, the most famous stars have more than one name: one or more common names, plus its official Greek letter, its official number, and (if is a "variable star") a couple of Latin letters. As examples, the brightest star of the aforementioned Centaurus is called Alpha Centauri (greek name), Rigil Kentaurus or Toliman (common names), and other less-known denominations.

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Here we'll divide the 88 constellations in subgroups for convenience. To learn more about constellations in general, see here.

Constellations near the North Pole

These constellations are called "circumpolar" (liter. "around the Pole") and can be seen all year round from North American and European latitudes. ^note Even though their more southern part can go below the north horizon if you're watching the sky from below the +40° terrestrial latitude. During the night/the year you can see them turning around the northern Polar Star (which signs the celestial North Pole). The latter is the only star apparently fixed in the Sky, and points toward the North direction of the Earth.

• Ursa Major & Ursa Minor: the Great and the Little Bear. These are the only constellations in the Northern Hemisphere whose figures are known even by laypeople. What is less-known is, the two celestial bears have given their name to the Arctic (Arctos in Greek means bear), and indirectly the Antarctica — literally the "anti-bear". However, only the Great Bear (or more simply, "the" Bear) is easily visible in the Sky. If you want to see the Little one you must go out of cities, and even so you have few chances to identify it if you're not a skilled watcher. Moreover, the way books tell you to find the Polar Star (by using the two Great Bear's stars that seem pointing toward it) is not always easy to apply in Real Life. So, it's not surprising that many people say never to have seen the Polar Star.
  • Ursa Major (meaning the "greater she-bear" in Latin) is the biggest-by-area constellation in the Northern Hemisphere and the 3rd in the whole sky. However, the familiar group of seven stars people associate with the Great Bear is only the brightest part of the constellation, and the only one non-astronomy books usually portray. It marks only the hindquarters and the (overly long) tail of the animal, while the remaining body is much more extended but signed by faint stars (the bear's paws are marked by three couple of starlets), and gets usually unobserved by non-expert watchers. The constellation appears high in the Sky in Spring, but may be low near the North Horizon (or even below it) in Fall. The group of seven bright stars is called the Big Dipper or the Plough in English, but is variably named across the languages and dialects: the Wagon, the Saucepan, the Great Cart, Charles' Wain, the Seven Oxen, and so on. One of the stars of the "tail" is a famous double-star: Mizar. Its fainter companion, Alcor, is usually distinguishable from Mizar (the main star) only by using the binoculars or a telescope, even though some sharp-eyed people can tell the two stars apart with their naked eyes. ^note Double-stars are stars so-close to each other in the Sky they visually appear like one single star. Triple and multiple stars are also existing in the firmament. In some cases they are really close in the space and tied by gravity (the really double / multiple stars); others are only incidentally in the same perspective but at different distances from us. Mizar & Alcor belong to both cases: they are not close to each other in the space, but each one is made of two or more stars which are really orbiting together in the space. Ursa Minor (literally "the lesser she-bear"; also called the Little Dipper - Plough - Wagon - Cart - etc.) is so-called because resembles a miniature version of the "big dipper" but with a more curved "handle". Only three of the seven main stars are visible from a city or a town: the Alpha (aka the Polar Star), and the two at the opposite end. Since the Polar appears still, the Little Bear seems turning around the North Pole with the end of its "tail" fixed in the Sky. Contrary to what is often believed, the Polar Star is not the brightest star in the Firmament (the record-holder is Sirius in the Great Dog), nor is it an especially-luminous star. And is not actually fixed in the Sky; it too turns imperceptibly around the actual North Pole. Finally, it has not always been THE polar; see below to learn why.

• Draco: the Dragon. Like the Great Bear, the Dragon is one of the biggest constellations in the Sky (8th placement). It's a sort of large "inverted S" which signs the snake-like body of a mythical dragon; its head is marked by a small quadrilateral at one end of the "S". Unlike the Great Bear, the Dragon is faint and difficult to recognize; it is higher in the sky in Summer, and would be visible next to the the Little Bear — while the dragon's tail wedges between the two bears. The Dragon's Alpha star (unusually, not the brightest star of its own constellation, the Gamma is) was in ancient times the Polar Star because of the Precession; the modern Polar Star has owed this privilege only since about 500 years. The next 20,000 years the Polar would be Vega, in the Lyre. Draco has also included the north pole of the Ecliptic — for the record, the Ecliptic is the circular route covered by the Sun during its apparent yearly "trip" in the firmament, but see the "Zodiac" section to learn better. In the opposite side of the circumpolar area there is another constellation, the Giraffe; but this one is not described here (see "recent constellations" below).

• Cepheus & Cassiopeia: the King and his Queen. If you watch the Great Bear and travel with your eyes beyond the Polar Star, you'll find an evident "W" (or "M", depends on the period of the night/year). This is Cassiopeia, the celestial Queen. Next to the latter, a sort of "house" with a sharp roof represents her husband, Cepheus the King. Both constellations are best-visible in the Fall, and both are crossed by the Milky Way. ^note Technically, the Milky Way indicates only the faint stripe of light you could glimpse in the sky if you're far from a city, but is commonly used to indicate the galaxy we're living in (the Milky Way Galaxy). Here we'll use the word only in the former sense; when coping with the galaxy as a whole, we'll call it "the Galaxy", "our Galaxy" or "our own Galaxy". As is known the "milky way" is just our own Galaxy seen from inside: less-known is, the visible stripe is entirely made by the spiral "arms" of the Galaxy, while the Galaxy's central bulge is actually invisible from Earth. This because our Solar System is placed within the arms making the external disk of the Galaxy, whose dusts hide the central bulge to our vision. To be precise, the "w" of Cassiopeia portrays only the queen's throne; the drawings show the woman sit on it while looking at herself with a mirror. Like the "big dipper" of the Bear, the "w" of the Queen is well-visible even from cities: as the central point of the W seems pointing toward the Polar Star, Cassiopeia can be useful to confirm the latter's correct identification. Though fainter and harder to find in the sky, the King is the second most northern constellation after the Little Bear and contains a famous star: "Delta Cephei" (aka the "Delta" star of Cepheus). This is a "variable star" which changes its size and its brightess periodically about every 4 days. It has been chosen as the prototype of its own group of variable stars, the Cepheids: since their variations are strictly tied with their actual luminosity, these stars have been utilized to measure the distances of the galaxies since the early 1900s. Cepheus also contains another famous star: Mu Cephei, nicknamed the Herschel's Garnet Star, named so because of its intense red color: this one is one of the largest stars known, with a radius more than 1400 times that of the Sun — to the point it could almost reach Jupiter's orbit if placed where the Sun is.

Northern Seasonal Constellations

These constellations are called "seasonal" because they're visible only in some seasons and not in others by North American and European watchers. They periodically rise from East and set in the West across both the night and the year, just like the Sun. Still, Northern Seasonal Constellations are more visible than the Equatorial Constellations (which are seasonal as well), to the point you can even see them at your Zenith in certain moments. Actually, if you're British or Canadian you can see some of these figures most the night/most the year like those in the previous folder. On the other hand, they are hard to spot from Australia or New Zealand. The three brightest stars of the Northern celestial Hemisphere (Arcturus, Vega, and Capella) belong to northern seasonal constellations. Six constellations of the Zodiac (Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer & Leo) and six recent constellations (Lynx, Lacerta, Canes Venatici, Vulpecula, Leo Minor & Coma Berenices) belong to this group as well, but they are described in their own folders for convenience.

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• Bootes: the Herdsman. Similar to a kite in shape, Bootes the Herdsman is a large constellation visible in the Spring's night sky near the Great Bear's "tail", and is also called "the Guardian of the Bear". Bootes is easily distinguished thanks to Arcturus, the brightest star above the celestial Equator and the 4th most luminous star in the whole firmament. This is an orange "giant star" placed at the narrower end of the "kite" and marking the man's legs; his head and shoulders are signed by the other end of the kite. The diameter of Arcturus is 30 times bigger than the Sun's and emits 100 times more light than the Sun; despite this, Arcturus is still smaller than other giant stars like Betelgeuse and Rigel in Orion. In the next 5,000 million years, astronomers say our Sun'll become a giant similar to Arcturus. ^note Arcturus is one of the "stars of 1° magnitude." 1° magnitude-stars are the brightest star in the Sky and the first to attract our eyes when watching the night sky. They are about twenty. The North Polar Star is not among them, as well as none of the 7 main stars of the Great Bear. In the Northern Hemisphere we can see Aldebaran, Altair, Arcturus, Betelgeuse, Capella, Deneb, Pollux, Procyon, Regulus, and Vega. In the Southern one there are Alpha Centauri, Beta Centauri, Achernar, Antares, Canopus, Fomalhaut, Rigel, Sirius, Spica, and two stars of the Southern Cross. The most northern portion of Bootes was once identified as a constellations on its own, the "Quadrant" (latin: Quadrans Muralis). From this area seemingly come the Quadrantid Meteors at the beginning of January, the first meteors visible in the Earth's year: this is usually the richest swarm of "shooting stars" year-round in term of number of meteors per hour together with the Geminids (see "Gemini" further), but fainter than those seen in the 10-12 August, the Perseids (see "Perseus" further).

• Lyra: the Lyre. A small but easy-to-find constellation best-visible in the Summer. Similar to a rhomboid, the Lyre portrays the eponymous ancient instrument and is definitively dominated by its alpha star: Vega, the 5th brightest star in the whole Sky. This is a light-blue star not much bigger than the Sun and relatively close to the Solar System. However, we don't know if it is surrounded by planets as shown in some pop-cultural portrayals. ^note Planets outside the Solar System have been discovered only since the 1990s; astronomers think only stars the size of / smaller than the Sun can be "old" enough to have had the time to form a planetary system populated by intelligent forms of Life. Vega is probably still too "young". The Lyre also contains a famous quadruple star called "the double double", and one of the most celebrated nebulas: the Ring Nebula, so-called because it appears ring-shaped when seen with a telescope. Nebulae are huge masses of gas and/or dust much larger than the whole Solar System, and are found in the external "disk" of our Galaxy. There are several types of nebulas; the Ring Nebula pertain to the subgroup called "planetary nebulas" (see also the Zodiac section).

• Auriga: the Coachman. At the opposite side in the North Sky, Auriga the Coachman is an evident Winter constellation actually portraying more a shepherd than a coachman. Its main star, Capella, is the 6th brightest star in the Sky and could be seen almost all year-round from Canada. It's a yellow giant star similar to Arcturus, and makes one of the corners of the irregular pentagon of Auriga (the pentagon signs the man's body). Capella means "little goat": indeed, it marks a goat above the man's shoulders. Curiously, one of the stars of the "pentagon" is at the same time one of the Bull's horns, so Auriga and Taurus actually appear like one single figure in the sky. Which constellation this star pertains to has long been controversial; however, since 1922 it has been assigned to Taurus. Crossed by the Milky Way, Auriga contains several Star Clusters: more precisely, Open Star Clusters. ^note Star clusters are made of stars really close to each other in the Space. There are two very different types of star clusters: Open Clusters and Globular Clusters. Open Clusters are made of a relatively low number of young stars born together from the same nebula, and are usually near the Milky Way. The most famous open cluster is the Pleiades, in Taurus. For globular clusters, see just below.

• Hercules: the Knelt Man. The second largest constellation above the sky Equator after the Great Bear (and the 5th biggest of the whole Sky), Hercules would be visible between Arcturus and Vega in the summer sky, but its stars are all rather faint and the vast figure is not easy to see from cities. Represents the famous Greek hero in a kneeled pose, with one foot near the Dragon's head; several other ancient constellations are somehow linked to the hefty man by some legends. Hercules' head is marked by a "red giant" star, while his body is partially signed by a quadrilateral of stars just in the middle of his figure, nicknamed "the Keystone". In one side of the Keystone there is a famous deep-sky object (Deep-Sky Objects are nebulae, galaxies & star-clusters considered together. In other words: if it's neither a proper star nor a body of our Solar System, then is a deep-sky object): "M13", the greatest "globular cluster" in the Northern Sky. ^note  Globular Clusters are huge spherical clusters containing millions of stars. They have nothing to do with the much smaller "open" star clusters: the globulars are outside the disk of our Galaxy, encircling it together like an imaginary sphere called "the Galaxy's Halo". Also note the stars of a Globular Cluster are much more ancient than those of the Open Clusters. Deep-sky objects have their own terminology; the most important ones are listed in the Messier Catalogue or M-Catalogue, which contains about 110 objects from the whole firmament. M13 is the 13th object in the list. Finally, one curiosity: our Solar System is traveling in the space toward the celestial area occupied by Hercules.

• Cygnus: the Swan. Maybe one of the most beloved constellations by night-sky fans. Cygnus the Swan is rightly nicknamed the "Northern Cross": its five main stars really make a figure like a Latin cross. Cygnus is better-visible in Summer (near the Lyre), and its cross is by far bigger than the famous Southern Cross. The Swan is shown in flight: the longest arm of the cross is its neck, the lateral arms its open wings. Both the head and the tail of the Swan are marked by a famous star. Deneb (literally "the tail") is a bright bluish star, one of the most powerful "giant stars" in the sky emitting 100,000 times more light than the Sun; but it's 3,000 light years from us, and so appears less luminous than other smaller but closer stars like Vega or Sirius. The head is signed by Albireo, maybe the most admired double-star in the sky: its members are one blue and the other orange, making a beautiful contrast if seen with a telescope. Also worthy of note are "61 Cygni A" and "61 Cygni B", a couple of "dwarf" orange-stars close to the Sun whose distance from us was the first among stars to be measured, by using the parallax method. Cygnus also contains a characteristic trait of the Milky Way, and several Deep-Sky Objects. One of them is a nebula whose shape resembles so North America it's commonly called the "North America Nebula". In the NGC catalogue it's the 7,000th member. ^note NGC is the most complete catalogue of deep-sky objects, with almost 8,000 nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies from the whole Sky. They are listed with the sigle NGC followed by a number: the North America Nebula, for example, is NGC 7000. Every object in the Messier Catalogue has also its NGC number. Another nebula is called the Veil Nebula for its delicate look, but is actually the remain of an extremely violent event: a Super-Nova, aka the explosion of a giant star. And then, there is one of the most-known examples of a possible Black Hole: Cygnus X-1. For obvious reasons the supposed black hole is invisible from Earth, but the matter around it emits X-rays detectable with apposite instruments —- hence its name, Cygnus X-1.

• Pegasus & Andromeda: the Winged Horse and the Chained Woman. The names of these two constellations are rather familiar though for different reasons. Like Auriga & Taurus above their stars actually make one single figure in the sky, and one star appears shared by both. Modern astronomers, however, assign this star to Andromeda. Despite their lacking of 1° magnitude stars, Pegasus and Andromeda make together the brightest figure of the Northern Fall. Pegasus portrays the famous flying horse with bird-like wings, and is the third biggest constellation entirely in the sky's Northern Hemisphere (7th placement overall). Its most evident feature is the so-called "Great Square" (actually a rectangle) of stars signing the animal's body. ^note  But only three really belong to the Horse; the forth one marks also the Woman's head, and is the disputed star today attributed to Andromeda.. The horse's head and forelegs are marked by other stars, while the hindquarters curiously are not shown in drawings. Andromeda is basically a curved "tail" of stars (with other fainter stars around) protruding from the Great Pegasus' Square; it portrays the woman chained against a rock (see Perseus to understand why). The fame of Andromeda is strictly linked to one single deep-sky object: the Great Andromeda's Galaxy, also called "The Andromeda Galaxy" or simply "Andromeda". This is the biggest galaxy within our Local Group of galaxies, a bit larger than our own Galaxy but very similar to the latter: both share the classic spiral shape and both have two smaller "dwarf galaxies" nearby. In the Messier Catalogue the Andromeda Galaxy is the 31st object (M31) and is the more distant celestial object still visible with naked eyes: 2,000,000 light-years from us.

• Perseus: the Greek Hero. Ancient constellations are often linked to each other by mythology. Perseus, for example, was the Greek Hero who killed Medusa — the monster which had snakes instead of hair and which turned into stone everybody watched it. After killing Medusa, Perseus saved the princess Andromeda from another critter, the sea-monster Cetus (portrayed in an equatorial constellation). During his flight on the winged horse Pegasus, Perseus saw Andromeda chained on a rock as a sacrifice to calm Poseidon' anger down. Andromeda in turn was the daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia ^note It was just Cassiopeia's vanity that provoked the God's anger., and finally got married with Perseus. All these characters are portrayed near each other in the northern Autumn Sky. Perseus has the shape of a curved "Y", and shows the hero holding the Medusa's cut-off head with one hand. Medusa's eye is marked by one of the most famous variable stars: Algol (meaning the "devil"). Algol actually do not vary its size: it is a double star whose members eclipse each other every three days — just like the Moon does sometimes with the Sun. At every eclipse, Algol's overall brightness decreases. Perseus contains another "double" object as well, the "double cluster". Finally, Perseus is the apparent source from which the popular 10-12 August "shooting stars" come from — the Perseids indeed. ^note Shooting stars are definitively NOT stars. More properly called Meteors, they are simple grains of dust belonging to our own Solar System. When the Earth crosses the orbit of some comets, the grains of dust within the comet-orbit enter massively our atmosphere, making the familiar luminous trails. If you watch carefully a swarm of meteors, you'll note they seem all coming from one single point within a precise constellation, named the "radiant". In the case of the 10-12 August ones, the radiant is in Perseus.

• Lesser Northern Constellations. The constellations above vary in size from medium to very large, and are usually well-visible. However, most of the 88 celestial constellations are smaller/fainter than them and get usually unseen by occasional observers. Among the "lesser constellations" above the celestial Equator, some were created in the 1600/1700 centuries while others come from the Ancient Greek times. Here we list only the latter. ^note  All the constellations invented in the Modern Age are grouped in the last folder of this page for convenience. Despite their faintness, many effectively resemble the portrayed figure: Corona Borealis the Northern Crown can effectively recall the shape of a small crown between the Herdsman and Hercules, even with one star brighter than the others which is compared with a gem of the crown. In the opposite portion of the North Sky there's the aptly-named Triangulum the Triangle, a small triangle of stars near Andromeda and the Ram. Like Andromeda, it contains an important spiral galaxy: the "Triangulum Galaxy", the third largest member of our Local Group of galaxies after the Andromeda Galaxy and our own Galaxy, but fainter than Andromeda and not-visible with naked eyes. Interestingly, both Corona Borealis and Triangulum have one counterpart constellation in the Southern Hemisphere. Between the Swan, the Winged-Horse, and the Eagle (see "equatorial constellations") you could glimpse three tiny constellations: Sagitta the Arrow, Delphinus the Dolphin, and Equuleus the Little Horse — at least, the first two: Equuleus is so faint even skilled watchers have difficult to spot it. Sagitta (not to be confounded with Sagittarius which is below the Equator!) resembles perfectly the shape of an Arrow, while the Dolphin recalls the eponymous figure only vaguely; the rhombus of stars signing the animal's head is curiously called the Job's Coffin. The Little Horse (or the Colt) is the smallest Northern constellation and the second smallest in the whole sky; it's just a tiny group of starlets signing the animal's head only, and placed just near the head of the other more famous celestial horse, Pegasus.

Equatorial Constellations

These constellations are crossed by the celestial Equator. Their placement in the Sky make them equally visible from the Northern and from the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth; compensating this, for Americans and Europeans they appear always lower in the sky-dome than the Northern Constellations. If you want to see them near the Zenith you have to go near the terrestrial Equator. If you travel even farther south you'll see these constellations inverted. Just as an example, Orion the Hunter and Ophiuchus the Snake-Holder are two human figures which appear upright from U.S. latitudes, but the Australians actually see them like they are falling head-first from the sky! Some constellations of the Zodiac (notably Virgo) and two recent constellations (Monoceros & Sextans) are also crossed by the Equator, but here we'll only talk about ancient non-zodiac constellations. As a whole equatorial constellations include some of the biggest constellations in the sky, but they usually are relatively poor of bright stars; the great exception is Orion.

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• Orion: the Hunter. Orion is almost-universally quoted as "the King of the Constellations". Its seven brightest stars make together an great upright rectangle with a line of three very-close-to-each-other stars inside the rectangle itself. This coffeepot-like figure is unmistakeable and perfectly-visible worldwide even from the most light-polluted cities. Increasing its beauty even more, the Hunter is the only constellation portraying a human character that can actually recall a human figure. Finally, Orion has a plenty of interesting stars and deep-sky objects: some of them are a staple in astronomy books and magazines, to the point you aren't considered a true night-sky lover if you've never watched Orion at least once with your binoculars or your small telescope.
  • If you live in the Earth's Northern Hemisphere Orion is a winter constellation. Even though is called "the Hunter", its portrayal looks more like a warrior seen from the front. Orion is shown lifting a mace and a shield (both signed by faint stars) to defend himself against the charging Bull nearby, and has also a sword hanging from his belt. The belt is signed by the aforementioned three central stars, and is just on the celestial equator; the shoulders and the feet are symmetrically placed above and below the equator, and are signed by the stars of the "rectangle". Orion's right shoulder and his left foot are marked by two of the brightest stars in the Sky: Betelgeuse & Rigel, ^note  Both are Arabic words meaning shoulder and foot respectively. both hundreds of light-years far from us. Rigel has the letter "Beta" and thus should be less-luminous than Betelgeuse (the "Alpha" star); actually Rigel is brighter than Betelgeuse, and the 7th brightest in the whole firmament — however, note that Betelgeuse slightly changes its luminosity periodically, and can be the brightest star in certain moments. Making their constellation even more attractive, the two stars have contrasting colors: Rigel is blue, Betelgeuse is red. Both belong to the "super-giant stars" category, being even bigger than "simply-giants" like Arcturus. Rigel's diameter is about 80 times greater than the Sun's; if placed at the center of the Solar System, Rigel would swallow Mercury in its orbit. But even Rigel is a tennis-table ball when compared with Betelgeuse. This star has a diameter 1000 times greater than the Sun, and is one of the biggest stars in the whole Galaxy; if put in the place of the Sun, Betelgeuse would swallow the whole Inner Solar-System — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and maybe even Jupiter!! Among the stars known since antiquity, Betelgeuse is arguably the biggest. In other world, Betelgeuse could contain 10,000,000 Suns inside it. ^note Remember that the Sun could contain about 10,000 Earths, giving an effective idea about how immense the stars can be. Astonishingly, Betelgeuse's total mass is only 50-80 times the Sun. This means its density is extremely low: an amount of Betelgeuse's matter as big as a house would weigh like a sand-grain on Earth. Moreover, being a red star, the surface of Betelgeuse is colder than the yellow Sun and much colder than the blue Rigel. Despite its smaller diameter, Rigel has about the same total mass of Betelgeuse and produces even more light than the latter; in a few million years' time, Rigel will become a red super-giant the size of Betelgeuse. Both Rigel and Betelgeuse are super-massive stars nearing the end of their lives, with Betelgeuse in a more-advanced phase than Rigel (as recently as The New '20s Betelgeuse has changed noticeably its brightness, and some speculate that it could explode soon becoming a spectacular Supernova as bright as a half-Moon!). When born with a mass much bigger than the Sun, stars only live few million years: Rigel & Betelgeuse were still non-existing when the dinosaurs populated the Earth! After ending their internal "fuel" of hydrogen they become enormously inflated, and finally explode with unimaginable violence: the Supernova indeed. All what remains from the former super-giant is a "pulsar" or even a Black Hole — to learn more, see Taurus in the Zodiac section and the Useful Notes about Black Holes.
    • Betelgeuse and Rigel are not the only stars in Orion; there are also two nebulas which are perhaps the most famous nebulas in the Sky together with the "Crab Nebula": the Great Orion's Nebula and the Horsehead Nebula. The first is a bright "diffused nebula" visible to the naked eye like a "spot" in the middle of the line of stars marking the Hunter's sword. Nebulas like this are a bit like pregnant animals: new stars are continuously born from their gas. M42 (The Great Nebula's official name in the M-Catalogue) has at its center a foursome of stars called Trapezium for its trapezoidal shape; they are "newborn" stars recently originated from the nebula's gas. The Horsehead nebula (which, for some reason, is not even in the NGC catalogue!) is a dark nebula whose shape effectively recalls the Chess horse; it is near the Orion's belt, but sadly it's visible only with large telescopes. While bright nebulas are made mainly of hydrogen (the simplest and most abundant element in the Universe), dark nebulas are often full of complex substances, even including some organic compounds.

• Canis Major & Canis Minor: the Great and the Little Dog. ^note These two constellations actually are slightly above (C. Minor) and slightly below (C. Major) the Equator, but are here for convenience. Yes, there aren't only the Great and the Little Bear in the Sky; and yet, Canis Major and Canis Minor are not the only dogs in the sky (see "Recent constellations"). Both are small but bright constellations just beside Orion the Hunter, and represent his hunting dogs. The Little Dog is among the smallest constellations, looking like a simple small segment of two stars beside Betelgeuse; one of these two stars, Procyon, is the 8th brightest star in the firmament. The Great Dog (or more simply, "the Dog" par excellence) has a polygonal shape, but it too resembles anything but a dog; its many bright stars make it one of the brightest constellations, just as bright as Orion itself. But the Great Dog's fame is due only ot its Alpha star: Sirius, the "Dog Star". This is by far the brightest star in the entire firmament ^note Not counting Venus, Jupiter, and sometimes Mars and Mercury (all of them are actually planets), the brightest comets (nicknamed "hairy stars"), and of course the Sun, which IS definitively a star., but owes its record only because is one of the closest stars to us (merely 8.6 light years); actually Sirius is only a bit bigger than our Sun. Procyon too is a very close star (11.4 light years from us). The two dogs' alpha-stars incidentally share several features. Like the Sun both are in the middle of their life, but one day they'll enter the realm of the Giant Stars (not Super-Giants: their mass is too small). But today, Sun, Sirius, and Procyon are still in what astronomers call the "Main Sequence" of the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram. Most the other stars in the sky belong to the Main Sequence — the giant and supergiant stars are above the latter. Telescopes have revealed another astounding analogy between Sirius and Procyon. Both have a "White Dwarf Star" which orbits around them: "Sirius B" and "Procyon B". White Dwarfs are by far the smallest true stars in the Galaxy. Their diameter can be 100 times smaller than the Sun, and 100,000 times smaller than that of a red super-giant star like Betelgeuse: some white dwarfs are not bigger than Earth itself! Making the exact contrary of Betelgeuse, white dwarfs are extremely dense: one handful of a White Dwarf's matter will weigh several tons on Earth. A White Dwarf is the tiny remain of what once was a star similar to the Sun or to Sirius. According to the astronomers, both will one day become white dwarfs when beyond the "giant" phase.

• Serpens & Ophiuchus: the Snake and its Holder. Serpens the Snake is unique among all the 88 constellations. It's the only one to be divided in two distinct parts: Serpens Caput (the snake's head) and Serpens Cauda (the snake's tail). This makes the areas of the Sky being actually 89. The Snake's middle body is actually included in Ophiuchus the Snake-Carrier, which is between the head and the tail of Serpens. Together the two constellations portray one single figure — a man grasping with his hands a huge snake which is in turn coiled around the human's waist. Though made of faint stars, Serpens contains a nebula (the "Eagle Nebula") which has become famous after a spectacular photo made by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in the 1990s. Ophiuchus, too, is very peculiar among constellations. Being briefly crossed by the Sun at the first half of December, it should be considered the 13th constellation of the Zodiac; but it is not traditionally considered so in culture. Ancient astronomers might have overlooked Ophiuchus because the Ecliptic fairly "touches" only one of his feet (see the Zodiac below). Ophiuchus is a vast Summer constellation (Winter for Australians) at the exactly opposite end of the Celestial Sphere with regard to Orion, but like every other non-Orion constellation, its irregular figure recalls anything but a human. The ophiuchus' head is just near Hercules' head, but the former's body goes southwards, the latter's goes northwards. Being crossed by the Milky Way, Ophiuchus has a plenty of nebulas and star-clusters: together with Sagittarius this is the constellation with most globular clusters of the Sky. Curiously, one of the ophiuchus' most famous stars is invisible to a naked eye: the Barnard's Star, the second closest star to our Sun after the Alpha Centauri system. It's a "red dwarf" star, and its dwarfness explains why you need a telescope to see it despite its closeness to us. ^note  "Red dwarfs" are much smaller and fainter than a yellow star like the Sun, but still much bigger than the tiny "white dwarfs". Actually, red and white dwarfs are very different things. Like the Sun, the red dwarfs belong to the Main Sequence of the Hertzprung-Russell Diagram; they simply have less "fuel" than the other Main-Sequence stars, and are destined to live much longer — even a hundred of time longer than the Sun. On the other hand, White Dwarfs are below the Main Sequence and are more the remains of a former star rather than true stars. The Barnard's Star has possibly a planetary system around, and appears moving faster in the Sky than every other star. ^note Stars are not fixed in the Celestial Sphere as commonly thought: they change their position throughout the years. But this movement in almost-always undetectable to a naked eye: ancient people actually saw the stars almost in the same position they have today. On the other hand, the Barnard's Star appears "traveling" among the other stars, changing visually its position every year. This is also due to a perspective effect: if two stars travel the same speed in the space, the nearest ones appear speedier than the other. Another star which has notably changed its position through the centuries is, curiously, the bright Arcturus in Bootes. The Sun crosses Ophiuchus from about 29 November to 18 December.

• Aquila: the Eagle. The "King of the Birds" should not be missed in the Sky. Aquila is an equatorial constellation near Ophiuchus, and is visible not far from the Swan. Like the latter it is shown in flight and has the shape of a cross but smaller, more irregular, and with the arms of the same length (a "greek cross"). The Eagle's alpha star, Altair, is one of the three corners of the famous "Summer Triangle" (Winter for southerners), together with Vega in the Lyre and Deneb in the Swan. These three stars are all bluish in color, but Altair is easily recognizable because is lined by two starlets and is less-close to the other two. Like Vega and unlike Deneb, Altair is a star of the "Main Sequence" relatively close to us. If you're lucky, you might also find a Nova-Star in Aquila. ^note  "Novae" (literally "new") are usually-invisible stars that occasionally become visible to the naked eye. Even though the result of an explosion as well, Novae have nothing to do with the more famous and dramatic Super-novae: "nova" stars do not disintegrate totally after the explosion, and can explode more than once. Many "novae" are double-stars that are so close to each other, one of them literally "sucks" some matter from the other! Surprisingly, the "vampyre" star can be the smallest one; if so, it's because is a super-dense "white dwarf" sucking from another less-dense star. Sometimes the dwarf star expels abruptly the sucked matter, suddenly increasing its overall luminosity: this is perceived from Earth as a "new star" in the Sky (the Nova, indeed).

• Cetus: the Whale. Space Whale is Truth in Television. As one can expect from its name the Whale is one of the biggest constellations (4° placement), but its portrayals resemble anything but a whale. Cetus means "sea monster", and is actually a sorta sea-dragon with human-like forelimbs and fish-like tail. Like most fall constellations (spring for southerners), the Whale is faint and difficult to find; it's basically a couple of irregular pentagons linked with a middle line of stars across the Equator. One star of the "line" is one of the most famed variable stars: "Mira Ceti" (or more simply Mira, meaning "the wonderful one" in Latin). This is a red giant which greatly fluctuates its size and luminosity every 11 months: at its minimum Mira is not even visible to the naked eye, while at its maximum is among the brightest stars in the constellation. The Whale also contains the most similar to the Sun among the nearest stars, and this status makes it interesting for the famous SETI Research Project (searching for extraterrestrial forms of life).

• Hydra: the Sea Snake. Some vast constellations appear like a very long line of faint stars meandering among other more solid figures, often with a group of stars which mark one end of the line. Draco is a good example near the North Pole; others are Pisces and Serpens. However, the two up to eleven examples are better-visible from the Southern Hemisphere: Eridanus the River (see below) and Hydra the Sea-Snake. ^note Also called with the weird name "the Female Sea-Snake" to distinguish it from the much humbler Hydrus, the "male" sea-snake near the South Pole. Theoretically, Hydra should be the mythical seven-headed monster defeated by Hercules during one of his 12 challenges, but is always portrayed as an one-headed snake. Although less-known than other celestial figures because of its indistinct appearance, the Sea-Snake detains the special record of the largest by area among all 88 constellations in the Sky. Its head is marked by a small bunch of stars near the Crab just above the celestial Equator; the remaining body is below the equator, traveling between Leo/Virgo and the Centaur and ending near the Scales. Though mainly visible in the northern Spring, the Sea-Snake's head is already visible in Winter and its tail still in Summer, giving an idea about its extreme length.

Zodiacal Constellations

These are the constellations crossed by the Sun across the year (plus Ophiuchus described above). You have already known the names of the canonical 12 ones since your childhood. But do you know their shape, and have you ever recognized "your" constellation in the Real Life Sky? Difficult things. Sadly, we Western people have lost the habit to watch the night sky, even for simple amusement. Moreover, like every other constellation, the Zodiacal ones are not fixed in the sky but turn above our heads across the night and the year. Worsening things, all constellations of the Zodiac are seasonal (Remember? Seasonal constellations rise and set in a night, and are visible only in some seasons of the year).

The 13 constellations of the Zodiac make together a "ring" around the Celestial Sphere, and each is like one link of a circular chain. They are placed in the Sky with the same order we learnt when we're children: Aries the Ram, Taurus the Bull, Gemini the Twins, Cancer the Crab, Leo the Lion, Virgo the Virgin, Libra the Scales, Scorpius ^note NOT Scorpio: this archaic term is used only in Astrology. the Scorpion, (Ophiuchus the Snake-holder), Sagittarius the Archer, Capricornus ^note NOT Capricorn: this archaic term is used only in Astrology. the Sea-Goat, Aquarius the Water-Carrier, and Pisces the Fishes. However, they actually do not start with Aries and end with Pisces; like a ring-shaped chain the Zodiac has not a "start" and an "end", and you can alternatively read its constellations in the opposite direction: Pisces — Aquarius — Capricornus — Sagittarius — Ophiuchus — Scorpius — Libra — Virgo - Leo — Cancer — Gemini — Taurus — Aries. In the list below we don't follow rigidly the classical order because is more convenient so.

Technically, the Zodiac is the celestial area surrounding the Ecliptic. Remember? the Ecliptic is the circular route covered by the Sun during its apparent yearly "trip" in the firmament — needless to say, it's the Earth that actually turns around the Sun. The Moon, the 7 extraterrestrial planets of the Solar System, the asteroids (or planetoids) of the main belt between Mars & Jupiter, and the short-period comets like that of Encke are always near the Ecliptic, usually appearing in one of the 13 Zodiacal Constellations, but they can appear also in a few costellations nearby like Cetus, Orion, Sextans, and few others — this is not only the case of the Moon, Venus, Mercury etc. but also asteroids like Pallas, Ceres, and Vesta. On the other hand, long-period comets like that of Halley or Ikeya-Seki, and trans-neptunian bodies like Pluto, Eris, Makemake, Haumea, and Sedna often have very inclinated orbits and can appear far from the Ecliptic: Pluto can appear 17 degrees north or south of the ecliptic, Eris even more, and some comets even can show up in the constellations of the celestial POLAR zones! Even though true planets and other bodies of the The Solar System resemble bright stars of these constellations at a first glance, if you keep well in mind the shape of the constellation you'll easily note the body of the Solar System as an "intruding" star, also because the 7 non-Earth planets, their moons, the asteroids, and even the comets, don't twinkle unlike true stars.

The Ecliptic crosses the Sky's Equator in two points called Equinoxes, going half-above and half-below the equator but never far from the equator itself. Thus, all the Zodiacal constellations are in turn near the Equator. Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer & Leo are (totally or almost-totally) in the Northern Celestial Hemisphere, and are better-visible from USA, Europe, or Japan; Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus & Aquarius are (totally or almost-totally) in the southern one, and are better-visible from Australia, South Africa, or Argentina. Virgo is the only truly Equatorial constellation of the Zodiac, equally visible from both the hemispheres — but also Ophiuchus if you consider it a member of the group.

Keep this in mind: when the Sun appears in one constellation of the Zodiac, the constellation at the extreme opposite of the Sky Sphere is among the best-visible ones in the night sky of that period. For example, when the Sun is in Gemini, the best-visible zodiacal constellation in the night is Sagittarius; when the Sun is in Virgo, this is Pisces, and so on. For American and European observers, the Bull and the Twins are winter figures; the Lion and the Virgin are spring figures; the Scorpion, the Snake-Holder and the Archer summer figures; the Water-Carrier and the Fishes fall figures. The Ram is best-visible between Fall and Winter, the Crab between Winter and Spring, the Scales between Spring and Summer, the Capricorn between Summer and Fall. Not all constellations of the Zodiac are the same brightness however: Taurus, Gemini, Leo, Virgo, Scorpius & Sagittarius are the most easily-visible. Except for Sagittarius, each of them has one luminous star of 1° magnitude, though none of these stars is among the 10 brightest stars in the Sky. The other six/seven zodiacal constellations are faint (although two/three have a very large area, Aquarius and Pisces + Ophiuchus), and are hard or even impossible to spot from cities.

Indeed, zodiac constellations are NOT the same size, and the Sun do not stay exactly one month in each like in the astrological Zodiac. For example, Virgo holds the Sun about one month and half (the record), while Scorpius only few days (the opposite record). And they DO NOT correspond to the periods you see in the calendar... unless you're 2,000 years old! Because of the notorious Precession, when you came to light under a "sign" of the Zodiac the Sun actually had good chances to be in the former constellation. In other words: if you were born under Virgo, the Sun was probably in Leo; if under Pisces, it was more likely in Aquarius... and if you're so lucky to be born under Sagittarius... arguably the Sun was in Ophiuchus!

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• Taurus: the Seven Sisters and the Crab Nebula. Astronomy-lovers consider Taurus one of the most interesting constellations of the Zodiac and of the whole night-sky; it contains several remarkable objects for the owners of a pair of binoculars or a small telescope. Visible in the northern Winter near Orion, the Bull has the shape of a large "V" representing the animal's horned head (the two branches of the V are the horns of course), with fainter stars signing its forebody. Like Pegasus, the bull's hindquarters are not shown in drawings. The Bull's eye is marked by Aldebaran, an orange-giant star similar but less-luminous than Arcturus. Near Aldebaran there are the stars called Hyades. The Hyades is the Open Star Cluster closest to us in the Sky (150 light-years of distance); its closeness makes it easily-distinguishable with naked eyes, looking like a small "v" of about 12 stars (you'll see much more stars with binoculars) signing the head of the bovine. Like most other "open clusters" the Hyades formed in the space only few million years ago; even though appearing near the hyades, Aldebaran is actually closer to the Sun and doesn't belong of them. The Sun crosses Taurus from about 14 May to 21 June. The planet Uranus was first found in Taurus, near the border with Gemini.
  • In spite of being one of the most appreciated open-clusters in the sky, the Hyades get easily overshadowed by another, even more famous star-cluster of the Bull: M45, the Pleiades, also known as "the Seven Sisters". Even laypeople often know or have heard about "the pleiades", but many think they're a constellation on its own: actually the pleiades are inside the constellation Taurus — however, as they're placed apart from the main figure of the bull, they appear like something distinct. ^note  The Pleiades occupy a smaller portion of the sky than the Hyades, and if you're an occasional observer you'll probably see only a confuse spot instead of distinct stars. More expert observers can see seven stars with their naked eyes (hence the ancient name "the Seven Sisters"), but some sharp-eyed people can see other stars as well. Binoculars reveal the Pleiades being actually hundreds. The Pleiades are even younger stars than the Hyades: they appeared merely 100,000 years ago — after the mammoths and the cavemen! All the stars of the Pleiades were born together from the same nebula, and are still partially-surrounded by the nebula which originated them. Another famous "star" (better, a proto-star) in the Bull is "T Tauri", the prototype of those stars which are still in formation within their nebulas.
    • Taurus contains another singular object. This one is even more recent than the Pleiades, appeared in the sky in full Human History: M1, the Crab Nebula, the first object in the Messier's list, and definitively one of the most portrayed celestial objects in astronomy books and magazines today. Ironically, the "crab nebula" is invisible to a naked eye and its shape actually recalls anything but a crab. M1 is the most well-known example of a remain of Supernova. As said above Supernovas are super-giant stars exploding in the space. ^note  Some scientists formerly thought a Supernova could have been the cause of the Dinosaur Extinction 65 million years ago. Its radiations would have reached the Earth provoking genetic mutations in the living beings, exterminating them and finally leading dinosaurs to their extinction. However, there is not proof about all this, and this theory is now discarded in favor of the asteroid/comet impact one. See also here. The astonishing this is, when the explosion happens the star emits such an immense amount of light it can even outshine its own whole galaxy! If a Supernova explodes within our Galaxy, it can appear so luminous in our sky to project shadows (just like it was another Moon). This is what really happened in year 1054, when Chinese and Native-American observers reported an entirely "new" star of extreme brightness in the sky; it was indeed what modern astronomers call a Supernova (literally "super-new"). ^note  Some sources say it became as bright as the Sun or even more, but this is not the case. Oddly, European observers of the Medieval Age didn't report the event. If it was really like a second Sun, it would not get unnoticed to medieval people! If we are living before 1054 we'd not see the Crab Nebula, but its original star instead. Today, what remains from the former super-giant star is the nebula itself (whose gas is constantly dispersing in the space and will become invisible in the future), and a strange object inside it, infinitively smaller than the original star but even more impressive than a White Dwarf: a Pulsar, a kind of "neutron star". ^note To be precise, the Pulsar is not a proper star but a middle-way between a White-Dwarf Star and a Black-Hole. It's much smaller than the Earth itself but even more dense than a "white dwarf". Here the matter is not made of the usual atoms but only of an extremely-concentrated mass of Neutrons — hence "neutron star". The pulsar spin more times per second like a spinning-top, and emit at each turn a burst of X-rays and Gamma-rays detectable from Earth like a lighthouse — hence "Pulsar", which is a Portmanteau of "Puls(ating) (st)ar". Many other Pulsars are known in our Galaxy, usually originated from a Super-Nova: for example the one of the Veil Nebula in the Swan, and "Cassiopeia A" in the Queen. The latest one is the remain of the last supernova exploded in our Galaxy (1500 century), but the event was only barely seen to the naked eye.

• Gemini: Castor & Pollux. Gemini is the most northern constellation of the Zodiac, and is close to Orion as well like Taurus. A well-visible invernal figure for northern observers, the Twins deserves its name rather well. Its two main stars are very close to each other in the sky, each signing one of the twins' heads: their names are the same of their respective twin, Castor & Pollux. The twins' bodies are made by two parallel lines of stars direct toward Orion. Even though appearing almost identical, Castor and Pollux are actually very different stars. Pollux is a "yellow giant" star similar but less-bright than Capella (in the near Auriga); Castor is a complex multiple star with six members. Even tough slightly fainter than Pollux, Castor is the Gemini's Alpha Star — Pollux is only the Beta. Gemini contains among the Deep-Sky Objects a planetary-nebula called "the Eskimo Nebula" because it resembles the head of a man with a hood in some photos. The "dwarf-planet" Pluto was first discovered in Gemini. Gemini is also the source of a rich December meteor shower, the Geminids, just as abundant as the Quadrantids from Bootes, but like the latter less-luminous than the Perseids. The Sun crosses Gemini from about 21 June to 20 July.

• Leo: the King and his Sickle. This is considered one of the most easily-recognizable constellations of the Zodiac. Between the Great Bear and the Equator, Leo is a large (the third largest constellation of the zodiac) and bright figure that has effectively the shape of a leg-less lion (the legs are signed by fainter stars below the main figure), even with a distinguishable "mane". ^note One can alternatively see the Lion as an Egyptian Sphinx.. The front portion of the animal is marked by an inverted question-mark popularly-known as "The Sickle" for its shape. The "dot" of the "?" is the bluish 1° magnitude star Regulus (meaning "the little king") ^note Interesting that Regulus can sometimes be eclipsed by the Moon or the planets of our Solar System, as the Ecliptic passes very close to the star.; the mane is signed by the remaining Sickle. The lion's hindquarters are marked by a triangle of stars. Like the Great Bear the Lion has many galaxies visible with small telescopes, although not so many as in Virgo (see below). From Leo comes an unusual meteoric swarm each November, the Leonids; they are usually few, but about each 33 years they become the brightest and most abundant "shooting stars" in the Sky, even more than the Perseids, the Quadrantids, and the Geminids, making a so-called "meteor storm". The last time this happened was in year 1999; the next is scheduled in 2032. Particularly astonishing were the storms of 1833 and 1868 (more than 1,000 meteors per hour!), even depicted in historical illustrations. The other richest meteor showers year-round, Quadrantids Perseids & Geminids, never go beyond 100 meteors in one hour, or a bit more at the best. The Sun crosses Leo from about 10 August to 16 September.

• Virgo: triumph of Galaxies. Virgo is absolutely the giant of the Zodiac constellations, and actually the second biggest constellation in the whole sky after the near Hydra. Being more extended in "longitude" than in "latitude", the Sun employs about one month and two weeks to cross the area of Virgo — more time than every other zodiac constellation. Moreover, the equator and the Ecliptic encounter each other just in the Virgin, which contains thus one of the two Equinoxes. However, apart from its alpha star Spica (literally the "ear of wheat" on one virgin's hand)^note which, like Regulus above, is very close to the Ecliptic and may be sometimes eclipsed by a planet or the Moon., the constellation is not particularly bright. You can see it below the Herdsman Bootes and the Lion during the northern Spring (the southern Fall), and like almost every human figure it resembles anything but a human being. It recalls better a wide "Y" surrounded by other stars, with Spica marking one of the ends of the "Y" just below the Equator. Spica is one of the bluest and hottest 1° magnitude stars; though much bigger than the Sun it's still in the "main sequence" and not a proper giant star like Rigel or Deneb. However, the main interest of Virgo are its galaxies. No other constellation in the sky has so many galaxies visible with small telescopes. Most of them pertain to the "Virgo Cluster" of galaxies, 50,000,000 light-years far from us. This group of galaxies is much larger than our small "Local Group"; while the latter has only two dozen of members (all "dwarf galaxies" except for our Galaxy, Andromeda and the Triangulum Galaxy), the Virgo Cluster contains thousands of galaxies — to the point it is attracting our Local Group with its gravity. The most famous member of the Virgo Cluster is M87, an "elliptic giant" galaxy. ^note Not all galaxies are spiral-shaped: several haven't got the "arms" but only the central bulge, and are called "elliptical" (even though many are actually spherical). M87 is one of them and one of biggest known galaxies. The most popular Virgo galaxy is outside the cluster: the Sombrero Galaxy. This is a lonely spiral galaxy 30,000,000 light-years from us; since it's seen from the side, its shape really recalls a hat in photos. Finally, Virgo contains the brightest Quasar of the sky, visible only with telescopes and radiotelescopes. ^note Like "Pulsar", Quasar is a Portmanteau; it means Quasi-Star. Quasars look like simple stars at the telescope, and are invisible to a naked eye. They emit powerful radiations however, and their complete name is "Quasi-Star-Radio-Sources". Despite their modest appearance Quasars are very astounding objects. They are extremely distant galaxies (even 10,000,000,000 light years from us), and the farthest known objects in the Universe. As we see them like they were 10,000,000,000 years ago, they are actually galaxies seen at their first stages of life of the Universe, few billions years after the famous Big Bang. We don't know what exists (if it exists) beyond the quasars. The Sun crosses Virgo from about 16 September to 31 October.

• Sagittarius: a teapot near our Galaxy's center. Together with Scorpius, Sagittarius is the most southern constellation of the Zodiac — to the point that their "lowest" portions couldn't even rise above the horizon at some latitudes of the USA. The Archer would be visible below Aquila and Ophiuchus in the northern Summer, and is one of the largest constellation completely below the celestial Equator. Even though representing a centaur with bow and arrows, it shouldn't be confused with Centaurus "THE centaur", which is a distinct constellation even bigger and more southern than the Archer. Like most constellations Sagittarius resembles the portrayed creature very little; however, its brightest stars form the unmistakable profile of a teapot — to the point the constellation itself is popularly-known as the Teapot. However, its Alpha and Beta stars are outside the "teapot" figure and, oddly, are much fainter than many other stars of the Archer. Sagittarius detains the record of the constellation with more Messier-Catalogue objects. Two famous nebulae are M8 the Lagoon Nebula (a lagoon-like dark stripe apparently divides it in two), and M20 the Trifid Nebula (trifid = divided in three parts), but the Archer contains several other nebulas and star-clusters as well: one globular cluster, M22, is the third most luminous globular cluster in the Sky. The Sun crosses Sagittarius from about 18 December to 19 January.
  • This constellation holds another even more special privilege among constellations: the exact center of our Galaxy is just in the direction of Sagittarius. ^note To be fair it's actually between Sagittarius, Scorpius, and Ophiuchus, but it lays just within the Sagittarius' borders. Sadly, we cannot see it with our eyes or even with the most powerful telescopes; it is masked by the dusts of the Milky Way, which is particularly bright and dense in Sagittarius. However, radiotelescopes can detect the radio-waves coming from the deepest core of the Galaxy. This core is probably a gigantic but almost-inactive Black Hole whose immense gravity allows the galaxy around to remain intact in the Space. Arguably, most other galaxies have a huge black-hole at their center and are subject to similar mechanisms. ^note  Since we're here, let's give you some useful notes about the overall structure of the our own Galaxy. It contains about 1000,000,000,000 stars and its diameter is about 100,000 light-years, but the thickness of the external disk is "only" 1,000 light years. Our Solar System is immersed in the external disk, in the 2/3 of the Galaxy's ray from the core to the external edge (about 30,000 light-years from the Galaxy's Center). Giving an idea about the immense vastness of the galaxies: if the orbit of the Solar System's most external planet has the diameter of a coin, our Galaxy would be as wide as North-America! In a Spiral Galaxy like the Milky Way Galaxy or M31 in Andromeda, stars are continuously born from the "clouds" of gas and dust filling the external Disk. In the latter, there are not only stars (giants or dwarfs, single or multiple, with or without planets), but also many stars clusters (the "open clusters" , NOT the globular ones), many nebulae (either bright or dark, included the "planetary nebulas" and the Supernova remains), and several Pulsars and Black Holes (the so-called "degenerated stars" or "remains of star"). All these objects make together the traditionally-called "1° Population" of the Galaxy. Our Sun and all the other stars visible with naked eyes from Earth are in the Galaxy's disk and belong to the 1° Population. However, they don't remain in the disk forever; they slowly travel toward the central bulge, turning around the latter at different speed according to their distance from the Center (we're talking about million years). This kind of rotation causes the "spiral" appearance of our Galaxy when seen from outside. According to traditional study the Milky Way Galaxy has four spiral "arms": the Perseus arm, the Orion arm, the Sagittarius arm, and the Cygnus arm. If so, our Solar System probably is between the Perseus and the Orion arm. Spaces between the "arms" are not empty of stars: the stars here are simply less-bright. About the central bulge, it has an elliptical shape; unlike the external disk it is poor of gas/dusty clouds, and is populated by ancient red/yellow stars which make the so-called "2° Population" of stars in the Galaxy. If you carefully watch a photo of a spiral galaxy like Andromeda you'll see that the bulge is yellowish while the external disk is bluish; actually the stars of the disk are of all colors from blue to white to yellow to red, but the blue ones are the most luminous and give their color to the disk their are in. Completing this brief description, the whole Galaxy is surrounded by about a hundred of Globular Clusters, which make together the Galaxy's Halo —- see Hercules in "northern seasonal constellations"..

• Scorpius & Libra: the Stinger and its Pincers. The Scorpion is the brightest of the 12 zodiac constellations, and also the one which more neatly resembles the portrayed character (especially the stars signing its curved "tail"). Indeed, many night-sky lovers judge Scorpius one of the most beautiful figures in the whole Sky, almost rivaling Orion itself. Curiously, Orion and Scorpius were rivals even in Mythology. The Scorpion was envoyed by the goddess Hera to punish Orion for his vanity; it killed the Hunter with its sting, but then Zeus put them at the opposite ends of the Sky — when Scorpius sets Orion rises, so it could not threaten the man anymore. But Zeus evidently wanted to punish the animal; in the Sky the neighboring Archer is shown pointing his arrow against the Scorpion's heart marked by the bright star Antares. As if it was not enough, the poor beast even lost its pincers! Originally zodiac constellations were actually 11. Then, in Roman times, some thought 12 was a better number and used the Scorpion's claws to create a brand new figure: Libra, the Scales. The latter is a faint and unremarkable constellation whose quadrilateral shape could recall an ancient pair of scales. As a memory of its origins, Libra's Alpha and Beta stars are called "the southern pincer" and "the northern pincer" still today. ^note The northern one has a curious trait: it is an extremely-rare example of a green star. On the other hand, the Scorpion has several interesting objects. Its Alpha star, Antares, means "Mars' rival" because it's just as red as this planet (which sometimes is found near it). Like Betelgeuse, Antares is an immense super-giant star potentially-capable to swallow Mars' orbit if put where the Sun is. Its astrophysical traits are the same of Betelgeuse (see Orion), maybe Antares is only a bit smaller. Being crossed by the Milky Way, the Scorpion has several deep-sky objects: among them, the "Butterfly Cluster" (an open star cluster whose stars make together the shape of a butterfly) and Scorpius X-1, one of the several possible black holes in the external disk of our Galaxy — much smaller but more "swallowing" than the supposed one at the galactic center. The Sun crosses Scorpius from about 23 November to 29 November, merely six days; crosses Libra from about 31 October to 23 November.

• Cancer & Capricornus: the "tropical" Zodiac. If you read or remember Earth Geography books you'll find the names of the two imaginary lines called Tropics: the northern Tropic of Cancer and the southern Tropic of Capricorn. 2,000 years ago Cancer and Capricornus were respectively the highest and the lowest Zodiac constellations in the sky, about the same "latitude" of their eponymous tropics (23° north and -23° south). ^note Celestial latitude is technically called "Declination", but is measured in 90° degrees north and 90° south just like the Terrestrial latitude . However, because of the Precession, they've lost this privilege today. Both constellations are actually not particularly remarkable. Cancer has the shape of a "Y", and is the area devoid of bright stars between Gemini and Leo. Even though is considered the faintest figure of the Zodiac, the Crab contains a relevant open star cluster: the Beehive, also called the Praesepe or the Manger. Capricornus is the smallest-by-area constellation of the Zodiac; also made of faint stars, has the shape of a obtuse isosceles triangle below Aquarius and the Eagle, and should portray a goat with a fish-tail. The planet Neptune was first discovered in its tail, in the XIX century, near the border with Aquarius. ^note Planets from Mercury to Saturn are visible with naked eyes and thus have been known since the Antiquity. Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and the dwarf planets beyond the latter, are only-visible with binoculars or telescopes (even though the planet Uranus sometimes is barely visible to a naked eye), and were respectively discovered in the years 1781, 1846, 1930, and the 2000s. The asteroid Ceres (the first asteroid found, now reclassified as a dwarf planet as well), is only-visible with binoculars or telescopes too, and was first found in 1801 in Taurus..The Sun crosses Cancer from about 20 July to 10 August; crosses Capricornus from about 19 January to 16 February.

• Aries & Pisces: the Ram's First Point. We've already talked about one of the two Equinoxes, the one in Virgo. The other equinox is the "Spring point" (Fall for southerners of course) or the "Gamma point", but is more-known as the "First Point of Aries". This point has a special historical relevance: the celestial "Greenwich Meridian" (aka the line marking the "hour zero") ^note Celestial longitude is technically called "Right Ascension" but is measured in 24 hours, not in 360 degrees. Celestial "hours" are further divided in 60 minutes containing 60 seconds each, just like terrestrial days. just passes to the First Point of Aries conventionally, and this explains why the list of constellations of the Zodiac begins with the Ram. But is it really in Aries? Well, no... at least unless you're still living in ancient Greece! Today, because of the notorious Precession this point is in the near Pisces, which should be considered the start of the astrological Zodiac today. Apart from this, Aries and Pisces are quite inconspicuous constellations. Between Andromeda and the Whale, the Ram's main stars have the shape of a small triangle and portray the animal's head (the remaining body is marked by fainter stars); this triangle may get confused with the constellation called "Triangle" which is just near it and is about the same width. Pisces is a wide (4th zodiacal constellation by area) figure similar to a "L" visible in the northern Fall around the Great Pegasus' Square. Despite its size the Fish is one of the faintest Zodiac constellations. It represents two generic fishes united with their tails by a rope; the fish placed more south is marked by a small ellipse of stars just near the first point of "Aries". The Sun crosses Aries from about 18 April to 14 May; crosses Pisces from about 11 March to 18 April.

• Aquarius: the Heavenly Waters. One day the First Point of Aries (now in Pisces) will go in Aquarius: when so, we'll be in the Aquarius Era. But don't worry: you have to wait only 600 years. Like most Fall constellations (Spring for southerners) the Water-Carrier is faint and with an irregular shape, but is the second biggest constellation of the Zodiac, and the 10th in the Sky. Even though is crossed by the Equator, Aquarius is almost-totally in the Southern Hemisphere; you could see it under the "Great Square" of Pegasus, but good luck if you manage to see a man with an amphora. A small "Y" represents his amphora spilling water. This water is at the origin of the Heavenly Waters: that is, the sky area with Aquarius in its center, populated by many water-creatures: the Fishes, the Capricorn, the Whale, the Dolphin, and also the Southern Fish (see the next folder). Despite its faintness Aquarius contains an important object: the Helix Nebula, the nearest "planetary nebula". ^note Planetary nebulas are usually round in shape deceptively resembling planets, hence their name. At their center there's a White Dwarf Star. Planetary nebulas are the material ejected away from a star with a mass similar of the Sun when it explodes (it can explode more than once); like the nebulae originated from a Supernova, planetary nebulas will disperse their gas becoming invisible in the future. According to astronomers, the next 5 billion years the inflated Sun will explode forming a planetary nebula. All what will remain of our Star would be a tiny White Dwarf, which in billion years will "go out" becoming an hypothetical "Black Dwarf". For obvious reasons, we can hardly imagine what will be the exact destiny of our Earth after the death of the Sun. And is also one of those constellations to be the apparent origin of more than one meteoric swarm each year: the Eta Aquarids and the Delta Aquarids are the most relevant. The Eta Aquarids come from the famous Halley Comet and are visible in May; the Delta ones are visible later, in July. ^note Another swarm, the Orionids visible in October from Orion, comes from the same comet of the Eta Aquarids, the famous Halley one. Other shooting stars worthy of note are the Lyrids from Lyra in late April, the Arietids from Aries in June (not visibile at night because of their closeness to the Sun, and so called "daytime meteors"), the Ursids from Ursa Minor at the end of December (the last swarm of the Earth's year), the Draconids from Draco in October (from the comet Giacobini-Zinner, the first comet visited by a man-made space probe, in 1985), the Taurids from Taurus in November (actually two distinct swarms both from the Encke's Comet, the comet with the shortest known orbital period of merely 4 years), the Virginids from Virgo (visible in March), the Capricornids from Capricornus (visible in July), the Puppids-Velids from the southern Ship Argo (visible in December), and the Andromedids from Andromeda in November (from a today-disappeared comet, the Biela), which like the Leonids and the Draconids sometimes produce "meteoric storms". See these links to get deeper in the meteor argument. The Sun crosses Aquarius from about 16 February to 11 March — not much considered its width.

Southern Ancient Constellations

Very few constellations entirely below the celestial Equator have been known since antiquity. Greeks and Romans weren't able to see the deepest portion of the southern sky (although thanks to precession they saw a bit more of some parts, and a bit less of others): so, most southern constellations were invented in the modern era. But there are also exceptions. We've already seen five of them (Canis Major, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius & Capricornus); the others are listed below.

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• Centaurus: the Centaur. The other celestial centaur other than Sagittarius, Centaurus can be considered the southern counterpart of the Great Bear. It's the biggest entirely-southern constellation (the 9th in the whole Sky, but smaller than Eridanus, which barely touches the Equator), and is at the same time one of the brightest, just like the Bear in the Northern Hemisphere. The Centaur has a complex shape; only the "head" and the human torso of the creature are well-visible from most of the USA during the spring. The Centaur's two main stars are among the most luminous in the firmament and portray its front feet, but since are in the southern extremity of the constellation, they are visible from the most southern USA only. Curiously, both are commonly-known with more than one name: Alpha Centauri is also called Rigil Kentaurus or Toliman; Beta Centauri is also Hadar or Agena. Beta is a blue star, while Alpha is yellow; since they appear near the Southern Cross, they aid the latter to find the South Pole. Despite its name, Omega Centauri is not a star: it is the brightest Globular Cluster in the sky, even more than the one visible in Hercules, but is visible to the naked eye as an inconspicuous starlet. Also famous is a giant elliptical galaxy outside our Local Group called "Centaurus-A", which shows a dark stripe at its equator and emits powerful radio signals. These peculiar characteristics are due to the collision of Centaurus-A with a smaller spiral galaxy. ^note Collisions of galaxies are not so rare as one might think: galaxies are relatively close to each other within a "cluster", and when colliding they emit powerful radiations detectable from Earth. However, since galaxies are not solid bodies they actually fuse each other when "colliding". Moreover, since a galaxy is mainly made of dust and gas, no one of its stars will probably get destroyed in the process.
  • Alpha Centauri deserves a special mention. It can be renamed the "star of the records": it's definitively the closest star to our Sun (just 4.4 light-years from us); it's the third most luminous star in the firmament after Sirius and Canopus (see below). And is also the most Sun-like among all the 1° magnitude stars: only a bit bigger and with about the same external temperature of "our" own Star. In short, it's basically another Sun. But wait: Alpha Centauri is actually a triple star. The Sun's "twin" is Alpha Centauri A, and is only the biggest member of its system: the second member, Alpha Centauri B, is also yellow but much smaller than the Sun. The third member is even less conspicuous: Proxima Centauri, a "red dwarf" similar to the Barnard's Star and invisible to a naked eye like the latter. Proxima means "the near one" in Latin; indeed, THIS has been the real closest star to us. ^note  At least, since it was discovered; the three stars actually turn around each other changing periodically their position in the space. One day, the Proxima will be less-close to us than Alpha Centauri A and/or Alpha Centauri B. It was formerly believed that only solitary stars like the Sun or the Barnard's Star can develop a true planetary system, but just recently one was spotted in close orbit around Alpha Centauri B, and astronomers predict that others could exist in further orbits.

• Eridanus: the Eridan River. The Eridan River is the 6th biggest constellation of the Sky, and rivals Hydra the Sea-Snake for the title of "the longest constellation in the firmament". It's a sort of enormously-vast "inverted S" made of faint stars, whose "spring" is just below the Equator near Rigel (one of Orion's feet), while its "mouth" is not far from the South Pole. If it represents a Real Life river or a legendary one is uncertain. The only bright star of the River is just in its mouth: Achernar, the 9th brightest star in the firmament. This is a bluish star placed at the opposite end of the South Pole with regard to the Alpha-Beta Centauri couple; as the Pole is in the middle between Achernar and the latter, Achernar can help southern observers to better-find the pole itself. Even though this star is not visible from the northern USA, most of the river goes above the U.S. horizon in winter times. Eridanus contains also other two interesting stars: "Epsilon Eridani" (a close star similar to the Sun which is surrounded by a planetary system), and "40 Eridani" (a triple star whose smallest members are a red dwarf and a white dwarf). ^note Here is a list of the eight stars closest to us nowadays: 1) Proxima Centauri; 2) Alpha Centauri A; 3) Alpha Centauri B; 4) The Barnard's Star (in Ophiuchus); 5) Wolf 359 (in Leo); 6) Lalande 21185 (in Ursa Major); 7) Sirius A (the main Dog's Star); 8) Sirius B (the "white dwarf" companion of Sirius A). Six of them are dwarf stars ("red dwarfs" except for Sirius B), all so faint they are invisible to a naked eye. On the other hand, both Alpha Centauri A and Sirius A are slightly bigger and brighter than the Sun; their inherent luminosity and their closeness to us make them appearing the third and the first brightest stars in our sky.

• "Argo Navis": the Ship Argo. Originally, the legendary ship of the Argonauts was one single constellation in the Southern Hemisphere. Between the Centaur and the Great Dog, Argo Navis was by far the biggest constellation in the Sky; but in the 17th century one astronomer (Lacaille) thought it was really too large and divided it in three distinct constellations: Carina the Keel, Puppis the Stern, and Vela the Sails (all described in the next folder), each of them is still larger than most other constellations below the Equator. Before the division, however, the usual Greek letters have already been assigned to the whole Ship Argo. As a consequence, the stars of each of the three portions of the ship has only some greek letters and not others. For example, both the Sails and the Stern haven't any Alpha star. Just for the record, the letters of the greek alphabet are: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron, Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi, and Omega.

• Lesser southern constellations. Most of the smallest/faintest constellations below the Equator are Recent, but some are Ancient. Among them, Piscis Austrinus the Southern Fish is visible in the Fall (for U.S. people), represents a generic fish swimming in the Heavenly Waters just under Aquarius, and is actually shown drinking the water spilled by the Water-Carrier! The fish's mouth is signed by a bright bluish star, Fomalhaut (the only 1° magnitude star in this celestial area), but the rest of its body is like a small faint ellipse. Just below Orion's feet is Lepus the Hare: hares were arguably among the Hunter's favorite preys, and the one portrayed appears chased by his Great Dog. "Pressed" against the two biggest constellations of the sky (Virgo and Hydra) you could see Corvus the Raven and Crater the Cup, both just below the Equator and upon the monster's huge body. The Raven is a small quadrilateral portraying the bird pecking the Hydra's body; the Cup has some resemblance with an ancient cup. The four constellations above could be well-visible from the USA; other "lesser southern constellations" are harder to spot because are closer to the south Pole. The most notable is Lupus the Wolf, an irregular group of stars just beside Centaurus — and actually forming one single figure with the latter. The wolf was originally conceived as a generic wild animal, and is shown held with a spear by the centaur as an offer to the Goddities. Nearby there is the site of the sacrifice: Ara the Altar, a small figure below the Scorpion's "tail", and one of the most southern ancient constellations. Finally, Corona Australis the Southern Crown. This is the southern counterpart of Corona Borealis, a little semicircle of faint stars just below the Archer's feet.

Recent Constellations

Recent constellations make nearly half the constellations in the Sky. The vast majority of them are in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. All were created between the 1600s and the 1800s, either to fill the still "empty" spaces in the Sky, or by taking some stars away from other preexisting figures. By far the most famous recent constellation is the Southern Cross, used by people living below the Equator to identify the South direction of the Earth. All the others (except four) were invented by only three astronomers: Bayer, Hevel, and Lacaille.

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• Crux: the Southern Cross. Contrary to what you might think, the Southern Cross is not in the exact celestial South Pole: it is only near the pole, pointing the latter with the longest of its arms. Encircled by the Centaur's legs, Crux was originally a portion of Centaurus, but Spanish and Portuguese navigators deemed it a distinct figure in the 15th century. But is actually not cross-shaped: it is actually a small rhombus-like quadrilateral. Sadly, Crux is only visible from the extreme south of the USA (Florida, Hawaii, and even a bit of Texas). But for Brazilian, Australian and New Zealand people the Cross can appear near the Zenith; its brightness and its usefulness to find the actual South Pole has made it an icon in these nations. ^note  It's worthy noting many insular nations in the Earth's South Emisphere have one reference to the Southern Cross in their flag, not only the well-known Australian and New Zealand examples and the Brazilian one. The New Zealand flag portrays only the four stars marking the points of the cross, while the Australian one show also a fifth fainter star, plus a brighter one near the Cross which is arguably Alpha Centauri. The Australian flag's stars are white, while those of the New Zealand flag are red (actually, the only way to tell the two flags apart from each other is watching their respective Southern Crosses). The flag of Papua New Guinea has a cross identical to that of Australia, but within a differently-colored underground. Other insular nations of the Pacific like Samoa, the Solomon Islands, and Micronesia, include also Crux in their banners. The flag of Brazil has, other than a small Southern Cross, several other stars in a celestial planisphere put on a green/yellow underground, that, however, don't form recognizable patterns of constellations. The astonishing thing is, the famous cross is actually the smallest by area among all the 88 constellations. The four stars forming the points of the cross have names that are Portmanteaus: Acrux, Becrux (also known as "Mimosa"), Gacrux & Decrux are the shortened versions of Alpha Crucis, Beta Crucis, Gamma Crucis, and Delta Crucis. Epsilon Crucis is the fainter star shown in the Australian flag, near one side of the quadrilateral. Despite its smallness, Crux contains two notable objects whose names make an ironical contrast: the Jewelry Box and the Coal Sack. The former is a beautiful "open" cluster visible with a telescope, whose stars are of different colors like gems; the latter is a great dark nebula easily visible to the naked eye because it seems to be making a hole in the Milky Way. Note that none of the two is listed in the Messier Catalogue, but only because Charles Messier could not list the deep-sky objects in the Sky South Pole zone, invisible from French latitudes.

• Carina: the Keel of the Ship Argo. As said in the former folder the Ship Argo doesn't exist anymore as a single constellation: in the 1700s the astronomer Lacaille divided it in three distinct constellations, each of them is today accepted as a proper constellation on its own. Carina the Keel is the southernmost (even closer to the South Pole than the Southern Cross itself), and is surely the most relevant of them. Its main stars form roughly the shape of a "W" resembling a bit Cassiopeia in the North Hemisphere. One end of the "w" is marked by Canopus, which is not only the Alpha star of Carina but also of the whole former "Ship Argo". It's interesting that the three most luminous stars in the Sky are all in the Southern Hemisphere: indeed, Canopus is the second brightest star in the whole firmament after Sirius and before Alpha Centauri. While the latter are (relatively) small, nearby stars, Canopus is a distant yellowish "super-giant" hundreds of light years from the Sun, one of the greatest 1° magnitude stars. ^note Curiously, the northern Polar Star is very similar to Canopus in size color & distance, but is less-luminous. It show also a bit of variability, and is officially classified as a "cepheid" star (see Cepheus above). Sadly, if you're American you can spot Canopus only from the south USA (in Winter times, just below Sirius), and like the Southern Cross and Alpha Centauri it's never seen far from the southern horizon. But even more striking is another star of the Keel, "Eta Carinae", which some nickname "the monster star". This is a supermassive star with a mass 100 times greater than the Sun ^note even more massive than super-giants like Betelgeuse, Rigel, or Canopus: in other terms, it's a "hyper-giant" star. Hypergiants are extremely rare in our Galaxy and definitively the most massive known stars: note however that, even though their diameter is always longer than BLUE supergiants like Rigel or Deneb, they can be still smaller in volume than RED supergiants like Betelgeuse and Antares, because the latter have matter of extremely low density. Eta Carinae, which is a blue hypergiant, is more massive but probably smaller-sized than Betelgeuse. varying unpredictably its brightness. Visually appears as an inconspicuous starlet, but in the XIX century Eta Carinae briefly became the second most luminous star in the whole firmament, even brighter than Canopus itself! During these events the star ejects part of its external matter in the space, to the point it has formed a huge nebula around it, named the Eta Carinae Nebula ^note while the innermost portion of the nebula itself (made famous by a recent photo of the Hubble Telescope) has received the curious name "Homunculus nebula", lit. the "little-man" nebula.. Some experts think this star might become a Supernova (better, a Hypernova) in the next 10,000 years.

• Puppis & Vela: the Stern and the Sails of the Ship Argo. These parts of the former Ship Argo are less luminous than the Keel but more northern, thus easier to spot from the USA. The Stern is a long irregular constellation visible in winter between Sirius and Canopus; the Sails is another irregular figure similar to a polygon, but is better-visible in Spring. If we could see the whole "ship", Vela would appear just above Carina. Two stars of the Sails and two of the Keel form together the so-called "False Cross", a small quadrilateral deceptively similar to the true Southern Cross. However, being the false cross larger fainter & farther from Alpha/Beta Centauri than the true cross, it's easily unmasked. As said above, both the Stern and the Sails lack the Alpha star. The Stern's main star (the Zeta) is one of the bluest and hottest known stars; the Sails' main star (the Gamma) is even more peculiar, as it has lost its external shell. Both constellations are crossed by the Milky Way; the Stern includes several Open Clusters, while the Sails contains a huge but faint nebula with a rest of a Super-Nova inside. Beside Puppis you could see another smaller and fainter recent constellation: Columba the Dove. Created at the end of the 16th century, this is maybe the only constellation in the sky to portray a Christian figure, the Great Deluge-related Noah's Dove. If so, the Ship Argo could be alternatively considered the Noah's Ark.

• Camelopardalis & Monoceros: the Giraffe and the Unicorn. These two constellations (plus Columba above and Coma Berenices below) were created by astronomers other than Bayer, Hevelius, and Lacaille. All them were invented in the 1600s — about the same years of Bayer's constellations but before those of Hevelius and Lacaille. Both Camelopardalis and Monoceros were created by the same person, and portray two similar figure: a giraffe (once called "camelopard") and an unicorn (the legendary one-horned horse). ^note In the 17th century the African big fauna was not as familiar to Europeans as it is today; a critter like the giraffe could easily be passed off as something mythical, like an unicorn. Camelopardalis the Giraffe is one of the six constellations closest to the North Pole, together with the Dragon, the two Bears, the King, and the Queen; but is by far the faintest of them, to the point it is hardly visible even when we're far from city lights. The Giraffe is nonetheless the largest recent constellation, well-filling the apparently "empty" area between the two Bears, Perseus, and Auriga. On the other hand, Monoceros the Unicorn is equatorial; it's the space apparently devoid of stars between Orion and his two Dogs. In spite of being easily overshadowed by the Hunter, the Unicorn is crossed by the Milky Way and contains two interesting nebulae, the Rosette Nebula similar to a flower, and the dark Cone Nebula.

• The 7 Hevelius' Constellations. Polish astronomer John Hevel (Hevelius in latin) ^note In 17th century Europe there was still the habit of "Latinizing" the names of important people. invented seven new constellations in the Northern and Equatorial sky in the 17th century. Before this, another astronomer had already invented another figure, Coma Berenices (which is here for convenience). This oddly-named constellation (literally "Berenices' Hair") is one of the weakest constellations of the Northern Sky, and portrays the cut hair of an ancient Egyptian queen. Between the Herdsman, the Lion & Virgin, the Coma is nonetheless interesting because some galaxies of the Virgo Cluster are actually visible in this constellation. Coma Berenices also contains the North Pole of our Galaxy. ^note that is, the perpendicular point with regard to the Milky Way's plan. In this area distant galaxies are easier to see than near the Milky Way, being not "darkened" by the dusts of the latter. Hevelius' seven constellations are very faint as well, but usually portray Real Life animals. One of the most notable is Canes Venatici the Hounds. Between the Great Bear, the Herdsman & and the Berenice's Hair, it is apparently made by only two stars, Alpha & Beta, ^note Curiously, many of Hevelius' constellations have only one or two stars labeled with a Greek letter., each portraying one of the Herdsman's two hunting dogs. However, the Alpha is also dedicated to the english king Karol 1th, and named Cor Caroli ("Karol's Heart"). The Hounds or Hunting Dogs contain also one of the most famous galaxies outside the Local Group: the Whirlpool Galaxy, the first ever galaxy to have its spiral shape revealed by telescopes (in the 18th century). Hevelius also invented Lynx the Lynx to fill the "empty" space between the Great Bear, the Twins and the Coachman or Charioteer; it's said he called it with this name because "only lynx-eyed people can glimpse it"! This is the largest Hevel's constellation but has only one star with a greek letter (the Alpha). Even though mainly visible in Winter, Lynx is placed very north in the Sky, and could at high latitudes be visible all year round. Near the lynx there is another celestial cat invented by Hevel, but even less conspicuous: Leo Minor the Little Lion portays either a lion cub or an undersized adult male lion, between the Great Bear's paws and the more familiar Lion's head. The Little Lion's only star with a Greek letter is, oddly, the Beta. Between the Swan and the Eagle, other than the Arrow you could also "see" Vulpecula the Little Fox (or more simply the Fox); ^note  Once called "Vulpecula com Anser", the Little Fox with Goose; old portrayals show the fox holding a dead goose with its mouth. actually its stars are so faint, the constellation is almost invisible to a naked eye. Nonetheless, the Fox interests night-sky observers because contains two notable objects: the Dumbbell Nebula (perhaps the easiest planetary nebula to see from Earth), and the Coathanger — a small group of starlets visible with binoculars, that really resembles the eponymous thing. Between the Swan and the Winged Horse there is Lacerta the Lizard, a bunch of stars which are very north in the sky like those of the Lynx. However, this figure was originally conceived as the "Scepter and Hand of Justice" before becoming the Lizard. Just below the Equator is Scutum the Shield ^note  More precisely the Sobieski's Shield: John Sobieski was the Polish king at Hevel's times., another tiny inconspicuous constellation crossed by the Milky Way, near the Eagle and the Snake's Tail, which contains an open cluster named "wild ducks" and a notable variable star, Delta Scuti. Finally, Sextans the Sextant, an almost-invisible Equatorial constellation between the Lion and Hydra: a poor homage to the sextant, one of the most important astronomical instruments in the past — but sometimes home for the Moon and some planets because of its closeness to the Ecliptic.

• The 12 Bayer's Constellations. Johann Bayer was the German astronomer who invented in the 16th century the usage to list the stars in a constellation with Greek letters. He also added 12 new constellations in his Atlas to fill the still-empty-at-the-time deep southern Sky (even though constellations had already been invented for the area by other astronomers). Most Bayer's figures are small and faint, and many are too close to the South Pole to be spotted from the USA; nonetheless, they are generally brighter and more recognizable than those invented by Lacaille (see below). Unlike the latter, Bayer's constellations usually represent exotic Real Life animals (which were at the time compared to the mythical beasts portrayed in the classical constellations). Five are birds: Grus the Crane, ^note This is the brightest and most northern Bayer's constellation, just below the luminous star Fomalhaut (in the Southern Fish). The Crane's shape resembles a bit a miniature Swan but more irregular. Phoenix the Phenix, ^note The only Bayer's constellation to portray a mythical critter — the famous bird which periodically reborn from its own ashes. Phoenix is an irregular but relatively bright figure between Grus and the luminous star Achernar (signing the mouth of the Eridan River). Pavo the Peacock, ^note Closer to the South Pole than Grus and Phoenix, it's a relatively large constellation made of an ellipse of faint stars, plus another star brighter than the others which the Royal Air Force (which required proper names for stars used in aerial navigation) also named Peacock. Tucana the Toucan, ^note A faint figure not far from the celestial South Pole. Being close to each other, Grus, Phoenix, Pavo & Tucana are sometimes nicknamed "the Southern Birds". and Apus the Bird-of-Paradise. ^note  One of the smallest and weakest Bayer's constellations, extremely close to the South Pole. Curiously, Apus means "feet-less" but the Real Life Bird-of-Paradise actually does have the feet! Two are reptiles: Hydrus the Male Sea-Snake, ^note A smallish triangle between Achernar and the South Pole, it should better named the Southern sea-snake. Hydrus is not the husband of Hydra, the "female" sea-snake: the former actually indicates a real creature (a small tropical water snake), while Hydra represents a huge legendary monster. and Chamaeleon the Chameleon. ^note  Just a stone's throw from the South Pole, the chameleon is an elongated inconspicuous figure, but is nonetheless used sometimes to aid the finding of the Pole itself. Two are fish: Dorado the Golden Fish, ^note A small elongated figure between Canopus and Achernar, Dorado does not portray the household goldfish but a large marine fish, the Coryphenid or "dolphinfish". However, some identify Dorado with a Swordfish. and Volans the Flying Fish. ^note Another small faint figure near the other Bayer's fish. In the sky Volans is shown "flying" against the Ship Argo to escape Dorado; in Real Life the coryphenid actually chases flying-fishes, even when they're gliding out of water. Finally, one is an insect: Musca the Fly. ^note  Although very small this constellation is relatively easy to find because is adjacent to the Southern Cross (a small part of the former's "Coal Sack" trespasses in Musca). However, the Fly was originally portrayed by Bayer as a bee, named Apis ("bee" in Latin). The remaining two are Indus the Indian ^note The only recent constellation showing a human figure, precisely a Native North American. Between the Crane, the Peacock & the Toucan, the Indian is quite indistinct but contains a near star very similar to the Sun, the Epsilon. and Triangulum Australe the Southern Triangle. ^note The smallest Bayer's figure but with the longest Latin name of all the 88 constellations. Between Alpha Centauri and the Peacock, this is the southern counterpart of Triangulum. Both triangles are very small figures, but the Southern one is brighter and more regular.. Dorado and Tucana are the most interesting among all them. Each contains one of the two main small galaxies "satellites" of our own Galaxy: the so-called "Magellanic Clouds". ^note Portuguese navigator Magellan saw them when traveling below the Equator, and was the first to report them to the western world. The Large Magellanic Cloud or LMC is mainly in Dorado; the Small Magellanic Cloud or SMC is completely included in the Toucan. Hydrus (the "male sea-snake") appears between them. Unusual for galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds are perfectly visible to a naked eye, like the Great Andromeda Galaxy: these are the three non-Milky-Way galaxies visible without binoculars or telescopes. The LMC and the SMC are named so because appear like faint "clouds" near the Milky Way stripe. They actually are two "dwarf galaxies" very close to our Milky Way Galaxy, and are about 180,000 light-years from us — much closer than every other galaxy of the Local Group except for the recently-found Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy or SDG, see below. Both "clouds" are traditionally classified as "irregular" galaxies because they lack a precise shape, and are mainly made of young stars, gas & dust like the external disk of our own Galaxy. The LMC contains also a nebula called Tarantula Nebula (much larger than the Great Orion's Nebula, and one of the biggest known nebulas so far) for its — allegedly for some — spider-like shape. One star near this huge nebula exploded in year 1987 as a Supernova: it has been the only supernova seen with naked eyes since the telescope was invented by Galileo in the 16th century. In the Tucana there is also "47 Tucanae", the second brightest Globular Cluster in the Sky after Omega Centauri: both are visible to a naked eyes like they're faint stars. Even though seems close to the SMC, 47 Tucanae actually belongs to our own Galaxy. Pavo as well contains a globular cluster, the forth most brilliant of the Sky, other to several other objects. Both globular clusters are brighter than the famous M13 in Hercules.

• The 14 Lacaille's Constellations. Lacaille was a 17th century French abbot who invented 14 new constellations in the Southern Hemisphere. ^note  Lacaille was also the creator of Carina, Puppis & Vela, the three parts of the former Ship Argo. Since they are simple divisions of a classical constellation most astronomers do not classify them as proper Lacaille's constellations. Lacaille's constellations include some of the faintest and least-known figures in the whole Sky, even though three enjoy more fame: Sculptor the Sculptor ^note It doesn't portray the man but only his study however., Fornax the Furnace ^note  It's not a furnace but the Chemical Oven, used for scientific experiments., and Octans, see at the bottom for the latter. As a group, Lacaille's figures appear mixed with the Bayer's ones in the deep-south sky, even though some are more northern and placed between ancient constellations. Lacaille created them mainly to celebrate Man's creativity: unusually for constellations, they don't represent human or animal character but scientific / artistic objects. For some reason some astronomers don't belove them much, and contest their presence in the modern constellation list. They are: Antlia the Pneumatic Machine, ^note Between Hydra and the Sails of the Ship Argo, it's an almost-invisible figure portraying a scientific instrument to create the artificial void, though it can also be visualized as a simple air-pump. Caelum the Burin, ^note Between the Dove and the right bank of the Eridan River, it represents the Sculptor's Chisel. It's the constellation with the least number of stars visible to the naked eye: only 4. Circinus the Compasses, ^note Pressed between Alpha Centauri and the Southern Triangle, it's the Lacaille's constellation with the smallest area, and resembles the eponymous tool to draw circles. Horologium the Clock, ^note More precisely a Pendulum Clock, is a relatively large but almost-empty area near Achernar and the Male Sea-Snake, and is also close to the Burin above. Mensa the Table, ^note Not an actual table but the Table-Mountain near Cape Town (South Africa), from where Lacaille made its observations of the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. The second constellation closest to the South Pole, Mensa has been quoted "the faintest constellation in the whole sky" with its brighter stars barely visible to naked eyes, but compensating this contains a small portion of the Large Magellanic Cloud (see "Dorado" above). Microscopium the Microscope, ^note Just as faint as the Table but much more northern than the latter. Between Sagittarius, Capricornus & Piscis Austrinus, some have quoted the Microscope "the most unnecessary constellation in the sky" because was created by taking its stars away from the Southern Fish's tail. Norma the Square, ^note Between the Wolf and the Altar, this tiny figure portrays a Set Square (though some call it the Ruler), and has not any Alpha star. Pictor the Painter, ^note Like Sculptor it's not the human; its complete name is the Painter's Easel. Between the bright star Canopus and the Large Magellanic Cloud, one Pictor's stars (the Beta) was the first star to have revealed a possible planetary system in, the 1980s. Pyxis the Compass, ^note The most northern Lacaille's constellation, Pyxis was originally the mast of Ship Argo; now it represents the tool to find the magnetic North, and shouldn't be confused with the Compasses. Some mention Pyxis as "the forth portion of the former Argo Navis", but unlike Carina Puppis and Vela it has its own greek letters including an Alpha star. Reticulum the Reticle, ^note A small but relatively visible rhombus representing the reticle, a small "net" made of human hair Lacaille used to put on the ocular of his telescope. Pictor, Dorado, Reticulum and Horologium make together a foursome of small constellations between Canopus and Achernar. and Telescopium the Telescope, ^note Below Sagittarius and the Southern Crown and above the Peacock, it's a humble but right homage to the most important astronomical tool. Significantly, the Telescope was put by Lacaille near the Microscope. Telescopium is the biggest Lacaille's constellation after Sculptor, Fornax and Octans.. The Sculptor and the Furnace are placed near each other below the Whale; the Sculptor is near the bright star Fomalhaut, the Furnace is ringed by a bend of the Eridan River. They are medium-sized constellations, about as large as Canis Major or Carina, whose area is visible from the USA. Though very difficult to spot because of their faintness, both are interesting because contain several galaxies. Some are small members of our Local Group, ex. the "Fornax Dwarf" and the "Sculptor Dwarf", both only a bit more distant from the Milky Way Galaxy than the Magellanic Clouds; others pertain to distant clusters. One galaxy of the latter (in Fornax) is named the Giant Barred Spiral Galaxy: this is indeed an often-cited example of a barred spiral galaxy, because it has only two spiral arms protruding from a central "bar". ^note Interestingly, it was recently hypothesized that even our Galaxy and the LMC are barred spiral galaxies, but the central bar of the Milky Way is not visible from Earth, and that of the LMC is very incospicuous. It was also very recently found (thanks to radiotelescopes) that a "phantom" dwarf galaxy, the Sagittarius Dwarf, lies at the opposite end of our Milky Way in respect to where we are, and could even be "sucked" by our own Galaxy in the future!. The Sculptor contains the South Pole of our own Galaxy; this explain why so many distant galaxies are visible in these two constellations (like in "Coma Berenices", that contains the galactic North Pole). Let's end our trip among constellations with Octans the Octant. ^note This was an ancient astronomical instrument very similar to the Sextant portrayed in the equatorial sky. This is a medium-sized but faint triangle-shaped constellation, but has a very special privilege: is this the constellation whose area contains the celestial South Pole. The Octant is slightly wider in area than Ursa Minor at the North Pole, but unlike the latter, its visible star closest to the south Pole (the Sigma) is barely visible to a naked eye.

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Patterns in the Sky, but not quite Constellations: THE ASTERISMS

In its broadest sense, an asterism is simply a recognizable figure of stars in the night sky. So in a sense, all constellations mentioned above are also asterisms; think of the term constellation being something of a status upgrade from mere asterism. In this page, or in general in the situation of naming star patterns, the term constellation refers only to the official 88 modern celestial areas in which the Sky has been divided since 1922.

As you can already surmise from the information on constellations above, the ancient Greek weren't the only ones who recognized star patterns in the firmament: most cultures around the world have done the same, sometimes imagining associations strikingly similar to those of the Western world, but more often very different. For example, the figure of Orion the Hunter is called the "Drum" in some Eastern Cultures; in Ancient Egypt, the Great Bear and the Dragon were respectively considered the Hippopotamus and the Crocodile. On the other hand, Taurus has been considered a bull in many ancient cultures outside the Greek/Roman world.

Regardless of who coined the star patterns, any of these figures that we do not fit into the 88 official constellations are considered asterisms — except for star clusters, like the Pleiades or M13 in Hercules, which are real ensembles of stars tied in the Space by gravity and are never considered asterisms. Like constellations, asterisms were mainly invented to aid navigations in the night sky. In several cases like the popular Big Dipper, the asterism is inside a single constellation — to the point they could be considered "constellations inside the constellations". In other cases, asterisms include the brightest stars of their own celestial zone and belong to more than one constellation, like the False Cross.

Famous Asterisms

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• Inside a single constellation:
  • The Big Dipper & The Little Dipper: The most famous part of Ursa Major & Ursa Minor respectively.
  • The Dragon's Head: The most famous part of Draco, a small quadrilateral.
  • The Queen's W: The most famous part of Cassiopeia, with the shape of the eponymous letter.
  • The King's House: The most famous part of Cepheus, similar to a sharp-roofed house.
  • The Great Square: The most famous part of Pegasus, actually a square-like rectangle. One of the corners is actually in Andromeda, and thus should be placed in the next section more properly.
  • The Perseus Y: The most famous part of Perseus, vaguely Y-shaped.
  • The Kite: The most famous part of Bootes, with the star Arcturus at its end.
  • The Keystone: The most famous part of Hercules, a quadrilateral at the center of the constellation.
  • The Northern Cross: The most famous part of Cygnus, far bigger than the Southern Cross.
  • Altair plus Alshain & Tarazed: the most famous part of Aquila, a trio of stars put in a line with the brightest at the center.
  • The Pentagon: The most famous part of Auriga, even though one of its corners is at the same time one of the Bull's horn-tips, and thus should be more properly placed in the next section. Together, Capella (the main star of the constellation) and other fainter stars nearby are called "the Kids" or "the Little Goats".
  • The Bull's Head: The most famous part of Taurus, with a typical "V" shape.
  • The two Twins: The most famous part of Gemini, made by Castor & Pollux stars together.
  • The Sickle: The most famous part of Leo, signing its head and forequarters.
  • The Sea Snake's Head: The most famous part of Hydra, made of stars very close to each other.
  • The Two Donkeys: two of the four stars of the central part of Cancer are called so.
  • The Great "Y": the most famous part of Virgo, similar to the eponymous letter.
  • The Circlet: The most famous part of Pisces, a faint ellipse signing one of the two fish.
  • The Ram's Head: The most famous part of Aries, a small elongated triangle.
  • The Job's Coffin: The most famous part of Delphinus, shaped like a rhombus.
  • The Amphora: The most famous part of Aquarius, looking like a small "Y".
  • The Sea Monster's Head and Tail: The two most famous parts of Cetus, both pentagons but differently shaped.
  • The Orion's Rectangle: the widest & brightest part of Orion, signing the character's body.
  • The Orion's Belt: The central part of Orion inside the "rectangle", made of three stars looking like a "/" line.
  • The Orion's Sword: Also within the Orion's Rectangle, it's a line of starlets famous because contains the Great Orion's Nebula in the middle.
  • The Orion's Shield: Out of the Orion's Rectangle, it's made by faint stars in a ")" shape pointing rightwards toward Taurus.
  • The Orion's Mace: Is also made by faint stars outside the rectangle, is placed leftwards and is lifted by him in the direction of Gemini.
  • The Scorpion's Tail: The most famous part of Scorpius, resembling the curved tail of the animal.
  • The Scorpion's Forebody: The other most famous part of Scorpius, with its "T" shaped head, as well as its "heart" made by the bright Antares flanked by two starlets on each side.
  • The Scorpion's Pincers: they are actually made by the two main stars of Libra, once part of Scorpius.
  • The Teapot: The most famous part of Sagittarius: at the center of the constellation, it really resembles the object in question.
  • The Obtuse Triangle: The shape assumed by Capricornus, similar to the eponymous figure.
  • The Inverted S: The shape assumed by Eridanus, like a huge meandering river.
  • The Centaur's Forefeet: The most famous part of Centaurus, made by bright Alpha and Beta Centauri together.
  • The Coathanger: a bunch of starlets in Vulpecula visible only with binoculars, which closely resembles this object.
  • The Kemble's Cascade: another group of starlets visible only with binoculars, this time in Camelopardalis.
• Within two or more constellations:
  • The Spring Triangle & The Great Diamond: The former trio is composed of the stars Denebola (from Leo constellation), Spica (Virgo) and Arcturus (Bootes). Adding Cor Caroli (Canes Venatici) to the three completes the diamond. Some sources substitute Denebola for the brightest Leo star, Regulus, though this significantly elongates the shape of the triangle/diamond^note Denebola is the tail of the Lion, whereas Regulus is near its head. The diamond also surrounds Coma Berenices.
  • The Summer Triangle: Composed of the stars Altair (Aquila), Vega (Lyra) and Deneb (Cygnus), this famous asterism is run through by the Milky Way. ^note Speaking of Vega, Altair and the Milky Way, this is actually the basis of the Tanabata folklore of Vega/Orihime and Altair/Hikoboshi being separated by the Heavenly River/Milky Way; Vega and Altair really are separated by the Milky Way when seen from earth. Vulpecula and Sagitta lie in the middle of the triangle.
  • The aforementioned Great Square of Pegasus has one of its four stars in the Andromeda territory. The "square" and the main stars of Andromeda make together a larger Fall figure which hasn't got a name on its own, but could be considered a wider variant of the Big Dipper.
  • The Winter Triangle & The Winter Hexagon/Circle: The former trio contains three very bright stars: Betelgeuse (Orion), Sirius (Canis Major) and Procyon (Canis Minor). Monoceros is in the middle. Together Sirius & Procyon are called the Two Dogs. Clockwise from Sirius and Procyon are the stars Castor & Pollux (Gemini), Capella (Auriga), Aldebaran (Taurus) and Rigel (also Orion) which together create the hexagon/circle with Betelgeuse somewhere near the center.
  • Together, Ophiuchus the Snake-Holder, Serpens Caput the Snake's Head, and Serpens Cauda the Snake's Tail, make a single Summer figure roughly between the Spring Triangle and the Summer Triangle. The constellations are actually only two, but Serpens is divided in two distinct areas separated by Ophiuchus.
  • Even though are actually distinct constellations, Auriga the Charioteer and Taurus the Bull make a single figure above Orion. The bull's upper horn appears attached to one of the auriga's feet, thanks to the star El Nath.
  • The two brightest stars of Centaurus, Alpha & Beta, and the four main stars of Crux make together the brightest (yet unnamed) asterism in the southern Sky — to the point it's portrayed in the Australian flag. Alpha Centauri (the brightest star of the pattern), together with Canopus in Carina and Achernar in Eridanus, makes a wide triangular figure of shiny stars with the celestial South Pole about in the middle of the figure.
  • The False Cross: Composed of Delta Velorum, Kappa Velorum (both from Vela), Epsilon Carinae & Iota Carinae (both from Carina) — so in a sense, this asterism is inside Argo Navis, a defunct constellation today — this asterism is so-named due to its close resemblance to the nearby Southern Cross/Crux. The Argo Navis itself is a huge asterism, made by three constellations: Carina, Puppis & Vela. Also Centaurus, Crux (once the Centaur's hindlegs), and Lupus the Wolf make together a large single figure.

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And then, the constellations and bright stars ordered by chosen criteria.

Constellations Ordered by Alphabet

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• ANDROMEDA: bright, includes the Great Andromeda Galaxy and is linked with Pegasus
• ANTLIA: is near the Ship Argo
• APUS: is near the South Pole
• AQUARIUS: large, zodiacal, includes the Helix Nebula and the Saturn Nebula
• AQUILA: on the Equator, includes the bright star Altair
• ARA: is linked with Centaurus
• ARIES: zodiacal, formerly included the "first point of Aries"
• AURIGA: bright, includes the bright star Capella and is linked with Taurus
• BOOTES: large and bright, includes the bright star Arcturus and includes the origin of the Quadrantids meteors
• CAELUM: is near Eridanus
• CAMELOPARDALIS: largest recent constellation, is very close to the North Pole
• CANCER: zodiacal, gives the name to the Northern Tropic and includes the Praesepe Cluster
• CANES VENATICI: near Bootes, includes Cor Caroli and the Whirlpool Galaxy
• CANIS MAJOR: near Orion, includes the extremely bright white star Sirius and its companion white dwarf Sirius B, and other bright stars like Adhara
• CANIS MINOR: near Orion, includes the bright star Procyon and its companion white dwarf Procyon B
• CAPRICORNUS: zodiacal, gives the name to the Southern Tropic
• CARINA: is one of the three parts of the Ship Argo, includes the bright star Canopus and the Eta Carinae Nebula
• CASSIOPEIA: is near the North Pole, it has a distinct "W" shape
• CENTAURUS: One of the shiniest constellations, includes:
  • the bright star more similar to the Sun (Alpha Centauri)
  • another bright star (Beta Centauri)
  • the closest star to the Sun (Proxima Centauri)
  • the brightest globular cluster (Omega Centauri)
• CEPHEUS: is very close to the North Pole, includes the stars Delta Cephei and Mu Cephei
• CETUS: very large, includes the variable star Mira Ceti and the Sun-like near star Tau Ceti
• CHAMAELEON: is near the South Pole
• CIRCINUS: is near Alpha Centauri
• COLUMBA: is near the Ship Argo
• COMA BERENICES: includes the North Pole of our Galaxy and part of the Virgo Cluster
• CORONA AUSTRALIS: is under Sagittarius, has an elliptical shape
• CORONA BOREALIS: includes the variable star Gemma, has a "U" shape
• CORVUS: is near Virgo below the Equator
• CRATER: is near Virgo below the Equator
• CRUX: is the smallest constellation, includes the "Coal-Sack" nebula and the "Jewelry Box" cluster
• CYGNUS: bright, includes the bright star Deneb, the double star Albireo, the North-America Nebula, and Cygnus X-1
• DELPHINUS: is near the Equator
• DORADO: includes the Great Magellanic Cloud, the Supernova 1987A, and the South Pole of the Ecliptic
• DRACO: is very close to the North Pole, passes between the two Bears, includes the North Pole of the Ecliptic
• EQUULEUS: the smallest northern constellation
• ERIDANUS: the biggest constellation below the Equator, includes the bright star Achernar
• FORNAX: includes a famous giant spiral galaxy
• GEMINI: zodiacal, includes the bright stars Castor & Pollux and the Eskimo Nebula
• GRUS: is one of the "Four Birds"
• HERCULES: very large, includes the red star Ras Algethi and the bright globular cluster M13
• HOROLOGIUM: is near Eridanus
• HYDRA: is the biggest constellation by area in the Sky
• HYDRUS: is near the South Pole
• INDUS: is near the South Pole
• LACERTA: is nearly circumpolar
• LEO: zodiacal, resembles the portrayed character, includes the bright star Regulus
• LEO MINOR: is above Leo
• LEPUS: is under Orion
• LIBRA: is the last-created zodiacal constellation, includes an apparently green star
• LUPUS: is linked with Centaurus
• LYNX: is nearly circumpolar
• LYRA: bright, includes the bright star Vega and the Ring Nebula
• MENSA: is near the South Pole
• MICROSCOPIUM: is near Sagittarius
• MONOCEROS: near Orion, includes the Rosette Nebula and the Cone Nebula
• MUSCA: is near the South Pole
• NORMA: is near Centaurus
• OCTANS: includes the celestial South Pole
• OPHIUCHUS: is the 13th zodiac constellation, includes the Barnard's Star and the Rho Ophiuchi cluster
• ORION: is usually considered the shiniest constellation in the Sky, and includes:
  • the bright super-giant stars Betelgeuse and Rigel
  • the "Orion's Belt"
  • the bright Great Orion's Nebula and the Trapezium cluster
  • the dark Horsehead Nebula
• PAVO: is one of the "Four Birds", is near the South Pole
• PEGASUS: large, includes the "Great Pegasus Square" and is linked with Andromeda
• PERSEUS: bright, includes the variable star Algol, the Double Cluster, and the origin of the Perseids meteors
• PHOENIX: is one of the "Four Birds"
• PICTOR: is near the Ship Argo, includes the star Beta Pictoris
• PISCES: large, zodiacal, includes the modern "first point of Aries"
• PISCIS AUSTRINUS: below Aquarius, includes the bright star Fomalhaut
• PUPPIS: is one of the three parts of the Ship Argo, includes the hot star Naos
• PYXIS: it was once part of the Ship Argo
• RETICULUM: is near the Great Magellanic Cloud
• SAGITTA: resembles strongly the object it represents (an arrow)
• SAGITTARIUS: large, zodiacal, includes:
  • the highest number of objects in the Messier Catalogue
  • the Lagoon Nebula and Triphid Nebula
  • the center of our own Galaxy
  • the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way Galaxy center
• SCORPIUS: bright, zodiacal, includes the bright star Antares and resembles the portrayed character
• SCULPTOR: includes the South Pole of our Galaxy and several esternal galaxies
• SCUTUM: is just below the Equator
• SERPENS: is the only constellation split in two, includes the Eagle Nebula
• SEXTANS: is crossed by the Equator
• TAURUS: large, zodiacal, includes:
  • the bright star Aldebaran
  • the two main "open clusters" of the Sky, the Pleiades and the Hyades
  • the Crab Nebula
  • the variable star T Tauri
• TELESCOPIUM: represents the telescope
• TRIANGULUM: includes the Triangulum Galaxy
• TRIANGULUM AUSTRALE: has the longest name of any constellation
• TUCANA: one of the "four birds", includes the Small Magellanic Cloud and the cluster 47 Tucanae
• URSA MAJOR: the biggest constellation above the Equator, includes:
  • the "Big Dipper" or the "Plough" (the most famous stellar figure of the sky)
  • the two "Pointer Stars" inside the Dipper, pointing toward the Polar Star in Ursa Minor
  • the multiple star Mizar/Alcor
  • the Owl Nebula
• URSA MINOR: includes the celestial North Pole and the Polar Star
• VELA: is one of the three parts of the Ship Argo, includes a remain of Supernova
• VIRGO: the biggest constellation of the Zodiac, includes:
  • the bright star Spica
  • the Virgo Cluster of galaxies with the giant galaxy M87
  • the Sombrero Galaxy
  • the brightest Quasar
• VOLANS: is near the South Pole
• VULPECULA: includes the Dumbbell Nebula and the "Coathanger" asterism

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Constellations Ordered by Celestial Latitude

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• IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE ^note Here we put only the constellations totally or almost-totally above the Equator
  • From about +50° up to the North Pole: Ursa Minor (which contains the +90° point), Draco, Camelopardalis, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and the northern part of Ursa Major (where the "big dipper" is)
  • From about +30° up to about +50°: The southern part of Ursa Major, Lynx, Auriga, Perseus, Andromeda, Lacerta, Cygnus, Lyra, the northern parts of both Hercules and Bootes, and Canes Venatici
  • Around +30°: Leo Minor, Triangulum, Vulpecula, Corona Borealis
  • From the Equator up to about +30° Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, Aries, Pisces, Pegasus, Equuleus, Delphinus, Sagitta, the southern parts of both Hercules and Bootes, Coma Berenices, and Canis Minor ^note Small portions of Leo, Taurus & Pisces are in the Southern Hemisphere, while Canis Minor touches the equator with its southern boundary.
    • NOTE: All these constellations are above the Ecliptic, except for the Zodiacal ones (which, by definition, are crossed by the Ecliptic) and Canis Minor which is below it.

• IN THE EQUATORIAL BELT ^note Here we put only the equatorial constellations evenly split between Northern and Southern Hemisphere
  • Above the Ecliptic: Aquila, Serpens (Caput & Cauda)
  • Crossed by the Ecliptic: Ophiuchus, Virgo
  • Below the Ecliptic: Monoceros, Orion, Cetus
    • Complete list of the constellations crossed by the Equator (ordered by celestial longitude from 0h to 24h): Pisces, Cetus, Taurus, Eridanus, Orion, Monoceros, Canis Minor, Hydra, Sextans, Leo, Virgo, Serpens Caput, Ophiuchus, Serpens Cauda, Aquila, Aquarius, and again Pisces.
    • Complete list of the constellations crossed by the Ecliptic (ordered again from 0h to 24h): Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Ophiuchus, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, and again Pisces.

• IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE ^note Here we put only the constellations totally or almost-totally below the Equator
  • From the Equator down to about -30°: Libra, the northern part of both Scorpius and Sagittarius, Scutum, Capricornus, Aquarius, the northern part of Eridanus, Lepus, Canis Major, Hydra, Sextans, Crater, Corvus and the northern part of Puppis ^note Small portions of Aquarius, Hydra & Sextans are in the Northern Hemisphere, while Eridanus touches the equator with its northern boundary.
    • NOTE: All the non-zodiac constellations above are below the Ecliptic except for Scutum which is above it.
  • Around -30°: Piscis Austrinus, Sculptor, Fornax, Pyxis, Antlia
  • From about -30° down to about -50°: The northern part of Centaurus, Lupus, the southern part of both Scorpius and Sagittarius, Corona Australis, the central part of Eridanus, Columba, Caelum, the southern part of Puppis, Vela, Grus, Phoenix, and Microscopium
  • From about -50° down to about -70°: The southern part of Centaurus, Crux, Carina, Pictor, Dorado, Reticulum, Horologium, the southern part of Eridanus, Hydrus, Tucana, Indus, Pavo, Telescopium, Ara, Norma, Triangulum Australe, Circinus, Musca, Volans
  • From about -70° down to the South Pole: Mensa, Apus, Chamaeleon, and Octans (the latest one contains the -90° point)

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Constellations Ordered by Area

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NOTE: The genitive form of each constellation's name is in brackets.

• 1) Hydra (Hydrae)
• 2) Virgo (Virginis)
• 3) Ursa Major (Ursae Majoris)
• 4) Cetus (Ceti)
• 5) Hercules (Herculis)
• 6) Eridanus (Eridani)
• 7) Pegasus (Pegasi)
• 8) Draco (Draconis)
• 9) Centaurus (Centauri)
• 10) Aquarius (Aquarii)
• 11) Ophiuchus (Ophiuchi)
• 12) Leo (Leonis)
• 13) Bootes (Bootis)
• 14) Pisces (Piscium)
• 15) Sagittarius (Sagittarii)
• 16) Cygnus (Cygni)
• 17) Taurus (Tauri)
• 18) Camelopardalis (Camelopardalis)
• 19) Andromeda (Andromedae)
• 20) Puppis (Puppis)
• 21) Auriga (Aurigae)
• 22) Aquila (Aquilae)
• 23) Serpens (Serpentis)
• 24) Perseus (Persei)
• 25) Cassiopeia (Cassiopeiae)
• 26) Orion (Orionis)
• 27) Cepheus (Cephei)
• 28) Lynx (Lyncis)
• 29) Libra (Librae)
• 30) Gemini (Geminorum)
• 31) Cancer (Cancri)
• 32) Vela (Velorum)
• 33) Scorpius (Scorpii)
• 34) Carina (Carinae)
• 35) Monoceros (Monocerotis)
• 36) Sculptor (Sculptoris)
• 37) Phoenix (Phoenicis)
• 38) Canes Venatici (Canum Venaticorum)
• 39) Aries (Arietis)
• 40) Capricornus (Capricorni)
• 41) Fornax (Fornacis)
• 42) Coma Berenices (Comae Berenices)
• 43) Canis Major (Canis Majoris)
• 44) Pavo (Pavonis)
• 45) Grus (Gruis)
• 46) Lupus (Lupi)
• 47) Sextans (Sextantis)
• 48) Tucana (Tucanae)
• 49) Indus (Indi)
• 50) Octans (Octantis)
• 51) Lepus (Leporis)
• 52) Lyra (Lyrae)
• 53) Crater (Crateris)
• 54) Columba (Columbae)
• 55) Vulpecula (Vulpeculae)
• 56) Ursa Minor (Ursae Minoris)
• 57) Telescopium (Telescopii)
• 58) Horologium (Horologii)
• 59) Pictor (Pictoris)
• 60) Piscis Austrinus (Piscis Austrini)
• 61) Hydrus (Hydri)
• 62) Antlia (Antliae)
• 63) Ara (Arae)
• 64) Leo Minor (Leonis Minoris)
• 65) Pyxis (Pyxidis)
• 66) Microscopium (Microscopii)
• 67) Apus (Apodis)
• 68) Lacerta (Lacertae)
• 69) Delphinus (Delphini)
• 70) Corvus (Corvi)
• 71) Canis Minor (Canis Minoris)
• 72) Dorado (Doradus)
• 73) Corona Borealis (Coronae Borealis)
• 74) Norma (Normae)
• 75) Mensa (Mensae)
• 76) Volans (Volantis)
• 77) Musca (Muscae)
• 78) Triangulum (Trianguli)
• 79) Chamaeleon (Chamaeleontis)
• 80) Corona Australis (Coronae Australis)
• 81) Caelum (Caeli)
• 82) Reticulum (Reticuli)
• 83) Triangulum Australe (Trianguli Australis)
• 84) Scutum (Scuti)
• 85) Circinus (Circini)
• 86) Sagitta (Sagittae)
• 87) Equuleus (Equulei)
• 88) Crux (Crucis)

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Brigthest Stars of the Sky

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See also here to see more details. The Sun is not included in the list, but is definitely the brightest star of the sky.

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1st magnitude Stars:

• 1) Sirius (Canis Major), in the Southern Emisphere
• 2) Canopus (Carina), in the Southern Emisphere
• 3) Alpha Centauri: (Centaurus), in the Southern Emisphere
• 4) Arcturus (Bootes), in the Northern Emisphere
• 5) Vega (Lyra), in the Northern Emisphere
• 6) Capella (Auriga), in the Northern Emisphere
• 7) Rigel (Orion), in the Southern Emisphere
• 8) Procyon (Canis Minor), in the Northern Emisphere
• 9) Achernar (Eridanus), in the Southern Emisphere
• 10) Betelgeuse (Orion), in the Northern Emisphere
• 11) Beta Centauri (Centaurus), in the Southern Emisphere
• 12) Altair (Aquila), in the Northern Emisphere
• 13) Acrux (Crux), in the Southern Emisphere
• 14) Aldebaran (Taurus), in the Northern Emisphere
• 15) Antares (Scorpius), in the Southern Emisphere
• 16) Spica (Virgo), in the Southern Emisphere
• 17) Pollux (Gemini), in the Northern Emisphere
• 18) Fomalhaut (Piscis Austrinus), in the Southern Emisphere
• 19) Deneb (Cygnus), in the Northern Emisphere
• 20) Becrux (Crux), in the Southern Emisphere
• 21) Regulus (Leo), in the Northern Emisphere

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2nd magnitude Stars:

• 22) Adhara (Canis Major), in the Southern Emisphere
• 23) Shaula (Scorpius), in the Southern Emisphere
• 24) Castor (Gemini), in the Northern Emisphere
• 25) Gacrux (Crux), in the Southern Emisphere
• 26) Bellatrix (Orion), in the Northern Emisphere
• 27) El Nath (Taurus), in the Northern Emisphere
• 28) Miaplacidus (Carina), in the Southern Emisphere
• 29) Alnilam (Orion), in the Southern Emisphere
• 30) Regor (Vela), in the Southern Emisphere
• 31) Al Nair (Grus), in the Southern Emisphere
• 32) Alioth (Ursa Major), in the Northern Emisphere
• 33) Alnitak (Orion), in the Southern Emisphere
• 34) Dubhe (Ursa Major), in the Northern Emisphere
• 35) Mirfak (Perseus), in the Northern Emisphere
• 36) Wezen (Canis Major), in the Southern Emisphere
• 37) Sargas (Scorpius), in the Southern Emisphere
• 38) Kaus Australis (Sagittarius), in the Southern Emisphere
• 39) Avior (Carina), in the Southern Emisphere
• 40) Alkaid (Ursa Major), in the Northern Emisphere
• 41) Menkalinan (Auriga), in the Northern Emisphere
• 42) Atria (Triangulum Australe), in the Southern Emisphere
• 43) Alhena (Gemini), in the Northern Emisphere
• 44) Peacock (Pavo), in the Southern Emisphere
• 45) Delta Velorum (Vela), in the Southern Emisphere
• 46) Mirzam (Canis Major), in the Southern Emisphere
• 47) Alphard (Hydra), in the Southern Emisphere
• 48) Polar Star (Ursa Minor), in the Northern Emisphere
• 49) Hamal (Aries), in the Northern Emisphere
• 50) Algieba (Leo), in the Northern Emisphere
• 51) Deneb Kaitos (Cetus), in the Southern Emisphere
• 52) Mizar (Ursa Major), in the Northern Emisphere
• 53) Nunki (Sagittarius), in the Southern Emisphere
• 54) Theta Centauri (Centaurus), in the Southern Emisphere
• 55) Mirach (Andromeda), in the Northern Emisphere
• 56) Sirrah (Andromeda), in the Northern Emisphere
• 57) Ras Alhague (Ophiuchus), in the Northern Emisphere
• 58) Kochab (Ursa Minor), in the Northern Emisphere
• 59) Saiph (Orion), in the Southern Emisphere
• 60) Denebola (Leo), in the Northern Emisphere
• 61) Algol (Perseus), in the Northern Emisphere
• 62) Beta Gruis (Grus), in the Southern Emisphere
• 63) Gamma Centauri (Centaurus), in the Southern Emisphere
• 64) Aspidiske (Carina), in the Southern Emisphere
• 65) Al Suahili (Vela), in the Southern Emisphere
• 66) Gemma (Corona Borealis), in the Northern Emisphere
• 67) Mintaka (Orion), in the Southern Emisphere
• 68) Sadr (Cygnus), in the Northern Emisphere
• 69) Eltanin (Draco), in the Northern Emisphere
• 70) Schedar (Cassiopeia), in the Northern Emisphere
• 71) Naos (Puppis), in the Southern Emisphere
• 72) Almach (Andromeda), in the Northern Emisphere
• 73) Caph (Cassiopeia), in the Northern Emisphere
• 74) Izar (Bootes), in the Northern Emisphere
• 75) Alpha Lupi (Lupus), in the Southern Emisphere
• 76) Epsilon Centauri (Centaurus), in the Southern Emisphere
• 77) Dschubba (Scorpius), in the Southern Emisphere
• 78) Epsilon Scorpii (Scorpius), in the Southern Emisphere
• 79) Nu Centauri (Centaurus), in the Southern Emisphere
• 80) Merak (Ursa Major), in the Northern Emisphere
• 81) Ankaa (Phoenix), in the Southern Emisphere
• 82) Kappa Scorpii (Scorpius), in the Southern Emisphere
• 83) Enif (Pegasus), in the Northern Emisphere
• 84) Scheat (Pegasus), in the Northern Emisphere
• 85) Sabik (Ophiuchus), in the Southern Emisphere
• 86) Phecda (Ursa Major), in the Northern Emisphere
• 87) Aludra (Canis Major), in the Southern Emisphere
• 88) Kappa Velorum (Vela), in the Southern Emisphere
• 89) Navi (Cassiopeia), in the Northern Emisphere
• 90) Markab (Pegasus), in the Northern Emisphere
• 91) Gienah (Cygnus), in the Northern Emisphere
• 92) Graffias (Scorpius), in the Southern Emisphere

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See Constellation Trip to learn more how to find the constellations in the sky.