Kitt Peak Nightly Observing Program
Splendors of the Universe on YOUR Night!
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Big Dipper
The Big Dipper (also known as the Plough) is an asterism consisting of the seven brightest stars of the constellation Ursa Major. Four define a “bowl” or “body” and three define a “handle” or “head”. It is recognized as a distinct grouping in many cultures. The North Star (Polaris), the current northern pole star and the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper, can be located by extending an imaginary line from Big Dipper star Merak (β) through Dubhe (α). This makes it useful in celestial navigation.
Engagement Ring
The Engagement Ring: Through binoculars, the North Star (Polaris) seems to be the brightest on a small ring of stars. Not a constellation or cluster, this asterism looks like a diamond engagement ring on which Polaris shines brightly as the diamond.
Little Dipper
Constellation Ursa Minor is colloquially known in the US as the Little Dipper, because its seven brightest stars seem to form the shape of a dipper (ladle or scoop). The star at the end of the dipper handle is Polaris, the North Star. Polaris can also be found by following a line through two stars in Ursa Major—Alpha and Beta Ursae Majoris—that form the end of the ‘bowl’ of the Big Dipper, for 30 degrees (three upright fists at arms’ length) across the night sky.
Winter Hexagon
The Winter Hexagon or Winter Circle/Oval is an asterism appearing to be in the form of a hexagon with vertices at Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Pollux, Procyon, and Sirius. It is mostly upon the Northern Hemisphere’s celestial sphere!
Winter Triangle
Smaller and more regularly shaped is the Winter Triangle (also known as the Great Southern Triangle), an approximately equilateral triangle that shares two vertices (Sirius and Procyon) with the larger asterism. The third vertex is Betelgeuse, which lies near the center of the hexagon. These three stars are three of the ten brightest objects, as viewed from Earth, outside the Solar System. Betelgeuse is also particularly easy to locate, being a shoulder of Orion, which assists stargazers in finding the triangle.
Auriga
Auriga is located north of the celestial equator. Its name is the Latin word for “charioteer”, associating it with various mythological charioteers, including Erichthonius and Myrtilus. Auriga is most prominent in the northern Hemisphere winter sky, along with the five other constellations that have stars in the Winter Hexagon asterism. Auriga is half the size of the largest constellation, Hydra. Its brightest star, Capella, is an unusual multiple star system among the brightest stars in the night sky. Because of its position near the winter Milky Way, Auriga has many bright open clusters within its borders, including M36, M37, and M38. In addition, it has one prominent nebula, the Flaming Star Nebula, associated with the variable star AE Aurigae.
Cancer
Cancer is one of the zodiac constellations, which means the ecliptic—or plane of the Solar System, runs through it. The Sun, Moon, and planets move along the ecliptic, and therefore, you can sometimes find these Solar System objects in Cancer. Cancer is a medium-sized medium-brightness constellation, located between Gemini and Leo along the ecliptic. You can find the notable open star cluster Beehive cluster (also known as M44 or Praesepe) within Cancer. In greek mythology, cancer was a crab that, under the instruction of Hera, latched onto Hercules’s feet while he was battling Hydra. Hercules and Hydra are also constellations, and Hydra borders Cancer.
Canis Major
Canis Major, the “big dog”, boasts the brightest star in the night sky—Sirius! Also known as The Dog Star because of the constellation it resides in, Sirius is a massive, hot, blue star—and it’s right next door! One of the reasons Sirius is so bright is that it is so close to us—only 8.6 light-years away. It’s name comes from Greek, and means “glowing” or “scorcher”.
Canis Minor
This little constellation with a name that means “little dog” has only 2 bright stars. One of them is Procyon—one of the brightest stars in the sky, and at only 11.5 light-years away, it’s one of our nearest neighbors in the galactic neighborhood. The name Procyon comes from Greek, and means “before the dog”, referring to the star Sirius, also known as The Dog Star in neighboring Canis Major, the “big dog”.
Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia is widely recognized by its characteristic W shape, though it may look like an M, a 3, or a Σ depending on its orientation in the sky, and your position on Earth. However it’s oriented, once you’ve come to know its distinctive zig-zag pattern, you’ll spot it with ease. The plane of the Milky Way runs right through Cassiopeia, so it’s full of deep sky objects—in particular, a lot of open star clusters. Cassiopeia is named for the queen form Greek mythology who angered the sea god Poseidon when she boasted that her daughter Andromeda was more beautiful than his sea nymphs.
Gemini
Gemini is a well known zodiac constellation. Zodiac constellations line up with the plane of the Solar System in our sky, an intersection known as the ecliptic. This means you will find planets passing through Gemini from time to time. Gemini is also grazed by the plane of the Milky Way, and therefore has a few deep sky objects within its boundaries. Gemini’s brightest stars get their names from twins Castor and Pollux of Greek mythology.
Hydra
Hydra, the sea serpent, with it’s long, serpentine shape, is the largest constellation by area, in the sky. Hydra is sandwiched between the plane of the Solar System (the ecliptic) to the north, and the plane of the Milky Way galaxy to the south. Just out of reach of the galactic plane, there aren’t any particularly bright stars in Hydra, but there is a variety of deep sky objects, including a few galaxies. Nearby are constellations crater, a cup, and corvus, a crow, closely related to hydra in Greek myth.
Leo
Leo is a fairly well known constellation, because the plane of the Solar System runs through it. Such constellations are called Zodiac Constellations. Leo has some notable, bright stars, in it to boot. The brightest of these, Regulus is at the bottom of a series of stars arrayed in the form of a sickle, or a backwards question mark. This constellation does look more or less like the side profile of a lion lying on the ground, with its head up.
Orion
Orion is a famous constellation, well known especially for the Belt of Orion—three stars in a line at what seems to be the waist of a human figure. The bright stars Rigel and Betelgeuse are two of the brightest stars in the sky. Between the Belt and Rigel you can see the Orion Nebula—the closest star forming region to our Solar System. A beautiful object in a telescope or binoculars, you can also just make out the nebula naked-eye.
Pegasus
This constellation is named for one of the most beloved creatures of Greek mythology—the winged horse named Pegasus. Within Pegasus is a well known asterism containing the 3 brightest stars in the constellation (+ 1 in Andromeda) called The Great Square of Pegasus. Alpheratz, the brightest star in the square, actually belongs to the constellation Andromeda, but in the past, this star had been considered to belong to both constellations.
Perseus
Hero of Greek mythology, Perseus is the character who slayed Medusa and rescued the Princess Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. This is why you will find the constellations Andromeda, Cetus, and Andromeda’s parents Cassiopeia and Cepheus, nearby each other in the sky. Perseus’s brightest star is called Mirfak (Arabic for elbow). The plane of the Milky Way runs through Perseus, so there are many deep sky objects to be found.
Taurus
You can look to Taurus, the bull, to find the two closest open star clusters to our Solar System. The Pleiades (or, Seven Sisters) is the second closest at 444 light-years away. It’s an obvious cluster to even the naked eye. The Pleiades is named for the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione of Greek Mythology. To the left of the pleiades, the Hyades (siblings to the Pleiades in mythology) is the closest open star cluster to Earth at 153 light-years away. The Hyades has a characteristic V shape to help identify it.
Ursa Major
Ursa Major, or, the Big Bear, is one of the best known and most well recognized constellations, but you might know it by a different name. Contained within the boundaries of the constellation Ursa Major is the Big Dipper, which is not a true constellation, but an asterism. The Big Dipper is useful for finding both the North Star and the bright star Arcturus. Follow the curve of the handle to “arc to Arcturus” and use to two stars in the dipper opposite the handle to point to the North Star.
Ursa Minor
Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, is much fainter than it’s companion the Big Bear, Ursa Major. Within Ursa Minor is the well known asterism The Little Dipper. The end of the tail of the bear, or the end of the handle of the dipper, is a star called Polaris—the Pole Star, or the North Star. This special star happens to sit at the point where the Earth’s axis of rotation intersects the sky
M42 The Orion Nebula
M42, the Orion Nebula is a region of star formation about 1,300 light-years away—the closest to our Solar System. It is roughly 30 light-years across, and contains enough material to make 2,000 stars the size of our sun.
M31 Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda Galaxy is our nearest major galactic neighbor. It is a spiral galaxy 2,500,000 light-years away, and has a diameter of 220,000 light-years. This galaxy contains as much material as 1.5 trillion suns.
Ecliptic
The ecliptic is a path in the sky, forming a great circle around the Earth, which the Sun and other planets of the Solar System move along. It is formed where the plane of the Solar System intersects with the Earth’s sky.
Meteors
Quick streaks of light in the sky called meteors, shooting stars, or falling stars are not stars at all: they are small bits of rock or iron that heat up, glow, and vaporize upon entering the Earth’s atmosphere. When the Earth encounters a clump of many of these particles, we see a meteor shower lasting hours or days.
Milky Way
That clumpy band of light is evidence that we live in a disk-shaped galaxy. Its pale glow is light from about 200 billion suns!
Satellites
Human technology! There are almost 500 of these in Low Earth Orbit (we can’t see the higher ones). We see these little “moving stars” because they reflect sunlight.
Zodiacal Light
Zodiacal light is the faint, smooth glow marking the ecliptic (the plane of the solar system). It is sunlight scattered off of gas and dust that orbits the Sun. This is a rare sight, only visible under very dark skies, and best viewed early in the year when the Ecliptic is higher above the horizon.
Double Cluster
The “Double Cluster” (NGC 884 and NGC 869) is a pair of two open star clusters that are a treat for binoculars and telescopes alike. Each is a congregation of many hundreds of stars, around 50-60 light-years in diameter. These clusters are both about 7,500 light-years away.
Hyades
The Hyades is the nearest open star cluster to the Solar System at about 150 light-years away and thus, one of the best-studied of all star clusters. It consists of hundreds of stars sharing the same age, place of origin, chemical content, and motion through space. In the constellation Taurus, its brightest stars form a V shape along with the brighter red giant Aldebaran, which is not part of the cluster, but merely lying along our line of sight. The age of the Hyades is estimated to be about 625 million years. The cluster core, where stars are most densely packed, has a diameter of about 18 light-years.
M44 The Beehive
M44, the “Beehive Cluster,” and also known as “Praesepe,” is a large, bright, diffuse open star cluster containing about 400 stars. It lies fairly close, at a distance of under 600 light-years.
M45 The Pleiades
M45, the “Pleiades,” is a bright, nearby star cluster, in the last stages of star formation. About seven stars stand out as the brightest in the cluster, and is why the cluster is also known as the “Seven Sisters,” alluding to the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters from Greek mythology. In Japanese, the cluster is known as “スバル,” “Subaru,” and is featured as the logo of the automobile manufacturer of the same name. The Pleiades lies about 440 light-years away and is a very young (for an open star cluster) 100 million years old.
Venus
Betelgeuse (α Orionis)
Betelgeuse (also called Alpha Orionis, α Orionis, or α Ori) is one of the brightest and largest known stars, though it is not one of the most massive. Located approximately 600 light-years from Earth, it is part of the constellation Orion and a vertex of the Winter Triangle asterism. Its large volume suggests that if it were at the center of the Solar System, it would wholly engulf Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, with its surface extending out to between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is classified as a red supergiant and as a semiregular variable star—that is, it shows considerable periodicity as its light changes, but this periodicity is sometimes irregular.
Castor (α Gem)
Castor (α Geminorum) is a multiple star in the constellation Gemini, the twins. Through the telescope, a close pair of bright white stars and a more distant red dwarf companion are visible, but these are each spectroscopic binaries, making Castor a six-star system. Castor is about 50 light-years away. The bright components orbit each other with a period of about 450 years.
Rigel (β Ori)
Rigel (β Orionis) is the brightest star in the constellation Orion, and the seventh brightest star in the night sky, with a visual magnitude of 0.13. Rigel is a triple star system. The primary star (Rigel A) is a blue-white supergiant around 120,000 times as luminous as the Sun. It has exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen out to 79 times the Sun’s radius. An Alpha Cygni variable, it pulsates periodically. Visible in small telescopes and 500 times fainter than Rigel A, Rigel B is itself a spectroscopic binary system, consisting of two main sequence blue-white stars of spectral type B9V that are themselves estimated to be 2.5 and 1.9 times as massive as the Sun.
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