The seasonal sky guide

Autumn

September · October · November

The long nights return, and the sky fills with the royal family of the Perseus legend, while the summer stars slip away in the west.

• The Great Square of Pegasus stands high in the south, a huge, nearly empty box of four stars; the winged horse is upside down.
• Andromeda runs from one corner of the Square; under a dark sky the Andromeda Galaxy, about two and a half million light-years away, is visible to the naked eye as a faint oval glow.
• Cassiopeia, the queen, makes her bright W high in the north-east.
• Aries, the ram of the Golden Fleece, climbs the south-east. Read the Argonauts’ story.
• Low in the south, lonely Fomalhaut, the brightest star in a dim region; it never rises far from Canadian latitudes.
• Overhead to the west, the Summer Triangle lingers into November evenings.

Winter

December · January · February

The brightest stars of the year shine over the coldest nights. Wrap up: these are the clearest, sharpest skies of the Canadian year.

• Orion dominates the south: the hunter with his three-star belt, red Betelgeuse at one shoulder and blue-white Rigel at one foot.
• Taurus, the bull, with the V-shaped Hyades and the tight little cluster of the Pleiades, the seven sisters.
• Gemini: Castor and Pollux, the twin Argonauts, high in the south-east. Their voyage.
• Sirius, the brightest star of the night sky, in Canis Major, low in the south, often twinkling in many colours through the cold air.
• Auriga and golden Capella nearly overhead.
• Low in the south on late-winter evenings, the stern of the ship Argo, in Puppis.

Spring

March · April · May

The bright winter stars sink in the west and a quieter sky of animals takes over — most of them connected to Heracles.

• The Big Dipper rides high overhead. Follow the curve of its handle — “arc to Arcturus” — to the orange star of Boötes. The Great Bear’s story.
• Leo, the Nemean lion of the first labour, with the backwards question mark of the Sickle and bright Regulus.
• Cancer, the crab, faint but holding the Beehive cluster.
• Hydra, the longest constellation, crawling low across the south, with Corvus and Crater on its back. Follow the serpent.
• Virgo and blue-white Spica rising in the south-east: “spike to Spica.”

Summer

June · July · August

Short nights, warm air and the Milky Way at its finest, if you can find real darkness. In the far north, twilight lasts all night around the solstice.

• Hercules kneels nearly overhead, with the great cluster M13 on the side of the Keystone. The kneeling hero.
• The lost Cerberus, once drawn in the hero’s hand. The constellation that disappeared.
• The Summer Triangle: Vega in Lyra, the lyre of Orpheus; Deneb in Cygnus, the swan; Altair in Aquila, the eagle of Zeus.
• Scorpius and red Antares hug the southern horizon, with the teapot of Sagittarius beside them, where the Milky Way is richest.
• Corona Borealis, a delicate semicircle of stars said to be the crown of Ariadne, between Hercules and Arcturus.

All year

The circumpolar stars

From Canada, a wide circle of sky around the North Star never sets. These constellations are your year-round landmarks.

• Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the bears, with Polaris at the tip of the little one’s tail.
• Draco, the dragon who guarded the golden apples, winding between them.
• Cassiopeia and her husband Cepheus, opposite the Big Dipper across the pole.
• The farther north you live, the larger this never-setting circle becomes.