Winter Constellations

List of Winter Constellations in the Northern Hemisphere

• Auriga• Caelum • Canis Major• Canis Minor• Carina• Colomba• Eridanus• Fomax• Gemini

• Horologium• Lepus• Monoceros• Orion• Pictor• Puppis• Reticulum• Taurus• Vela

Orion – The Hunter

• Orion is one of the most beautiful constellations in the winter sky, which first becomes visible around the end of August, and eventually disappears in the western horizon at the end of March.

Finding Orion

• If you look toward the east, you can easily find Orion's belt - three stars in a short, straight line. The rest of the constellation is easy to find from there.

Horsehead Nebula – Barnard 33 Nebula

• Distance-1500 LY• Dimensions-1 LY

The most famous nebula is hidden just below Alnitak. It appears just as a dense cloud of gas and dusk, and is fairly impossible to find…without a nice telescope.

The Horsehead Nebula

Auriga – The Charioteer

• Auriga forms a giant pentagon in the Northern sky, with the Southern part touching Taurus.

Finding Auriga• To find Auriga, first

locate Orion. • Taurus is to the right

(west) and just above these two, much higher in the sky, you will see Capella.

• This star marks roughly the mid-point of the constellation, north to south.

Capella – Double Star

• Distance-42 LY• Diameter-15 Million km• Luminosity-130 Suns• Capella marks the tip of the winter

pentagon, and dominates Auriga. • It is one of the best known stars in the sky,

but is actually a pair of giant stars separated by one hundred million km.

Capella the Double Star

Canis Major – The Large Dog

• Mid-winter in the north is best time to see it.

Finding Canis Major

• Canis Major is very easy to find in the winter months.

• First locate Orion, and imagine a straight line through his belt.

• Follow the line to the southeast, and you will see Sirius perched right below it.

• Sirius is the nose of the dog. • His body stretches to the southeast, and his

front leg is to the west of Sirius.

Sirius – Blue Giant Star

• Distance-8.6 LY• Diameter-2.5 Million km• Luminosity-22 Suns• By far, Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. • It is one of the closest stars to Earth, and

forms a famous couple with its companion, Sirius B, which is a white dwarf which revolves around it.

Sirius captured at dawn

Canis Minor – The Small Dog

• Canis Minor is very small, and is bordered by the Milky Way.

• It accompanies Orion in his celestial winter path.

• Its brightest star, Procyon, is one of the brightest in the sky

Finding Canis Minor

• Look toward the Southwest in the lateevening hours, and when you spot Orion, find his shoulders: Bellatrix, his western shoulder, and Betelgeuse, his eastern shoulder.

• Make an imaginary line between the two stars from Bellatrix to Betelgeuse, and extend it outward toward the East.

• About three shoulder-widths away you will nearly run into Procyon.

Procyon - Star

• Distance-11.4 LY• Diameter-2.8 Million km• Luminosity-7 Suns• It is the eighth brightest star in the sky, only

four LY away from Sirius. • It is also a double star, revolved by a white

dwarf, Procyon B. • The name means “before the dog” because

it rises in the east well before Sirius.

Procyon

Gemini – The Twins

• Gemini forms a rectangle north of Orion, and just above Canis Minor.

• It has been baptized as the Winter Hexagon by astronomers.

Finding Gemini

• Gemini is located above and to the left of Betelgeuse.

• Once you have found the stars Castor and Pollux, the stars which are the "heads" of the twins, seeing the rest of the constellation is easy.

Gemini Cluster – Star Cluster M35

• Distance-2,200 LY• Dimensions-30 LY• Gemini Cluster is located just southwest of

the constellation. • It is easily observable through binoculars

and looks like a silvery cloud. • It is filled with red giants, 100s of times

brighter than the Sun.

The Gemini Cluster

Taurus – The Bull• In Greek mythology,

Zeus took on the appearance of Taurus to kidnap the beautiful Europa.

• The horns are tipped by the stars Elnath and Dzeta Tauri, and the impulsive eye is marked by Aldebaran, a red giant.

Finding Taurus

• Taurus is an easy constellation to find. • You can find it by following the way Orion's belt

stars point toward the right.

Pleiades – Star Cluster M45

• Distance-400 LY• Diameter-30 LY• The most famous and beautiful star cluster

is just north of Taurus. • The brightest of these bluish stars are

perfectly visible to the unaided eye. • All the stars in Pleiades were born about

the same time, about 70 Million years ago.

The Pleiades Star Cluster

Winter Meteor Showers

• Geminids– December 13th

– 30 to 80 meteors per hour• Quadrantids

– January 3rd

– 10 to 50 meteors per hour