dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (01/29/86)
This is a good time to look for the Winter Circle. We'll tell you about it -- when we come back. January 29 The Winter Circle The best way to learn the stars is to find patterns among them. There are plenty of squares squares, dippers, half-circles and triangles in the sky -- and you can learn to identify these shapes with the named stars and constellations. For example, in the winter there's a large circle of stars that's overhead each evening. It's sometimes called the Winter Circle -- and it's made up of some of the sky's brightest stars. These stars are mostly members of separate constellations. Farthest north is the yellow star Capella located in the constellation Auriga. Westward is Aldebaran, the fiery red eye of the bull in the constellation Taurus. Coming around to the south, we find blue/white Rigel, the left foot of Orion the Hunter. Even farther south is Sirius in Canis Major -- always easy to find, by the way, since Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. And finally there are the twin stars Castor and Pollux, in the constellation Gemini. Look outside some evening, and try to focus on the large pattern of the Winter Circle. No other part of the sky contains so many bright stars. And while you look at the Winter Circle, try to realize that you're looking in a direction exactly opposite the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Our galaxy is a collection of hundreds of billions of stars. In summer, we face toward the center. But each winter our night sky faces the opposite direction. When you look at the Winter Circle, you're looking toward the galaxy's sparsely populated outer edge. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1985, 1986 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin