Something you don’t see all the time, at least around this part of the world, is a retired ace chariot driver schlepping around with a mama goat slung over one of his shoulders and kid goats in the crook of his elbow. But you can see that in the night sky. It’s the constellation Auriga the Charioteer. In fact, it is one of the prime winter time constellations.
As I’ve said many times before, many of the constellations just don’t resemble what they’re supposed to be. Cultures from the past all over the world used these dot-to-dot or star-to-star “pictures” as rough visual aids to help tell their particular legends or mythological stories. Imaginations must have been extremely healthy back then. Most of the constellation stories in the western hemisphere originate from Greek and Roman mythology.
In the case of Auriga, though, there must have been an outdoor party with strong libations when this constellation was created. Otherwise how could you make a constellation that resembles a lopsided pentagon into a retired chariot driver turned goat farmer?
In the early evening this time of year Auriga is perched high in the southeast sky and is a prominent member of the gang of bright winter constellations I call “Orion and his gang.” Look for the lopsided pentagon just to the upper left of the mighty constellation Orion the Hunter that resembles a giant hourglass, and according to Greek and Roman mythology outlines the torso of a mighty hermit hunter. Three equally spaced bright stars in a perfect line denote Orion’s belt.
As it turns out, this week you can also use the waxing gibbous moon, on its way to being full next weekend. Early this week the moon will migrate from night to night toward the east, passing just below Auriga.
The brightest star in Auriga is on the upper left-hand corner of the pentagon. That’s Capella, which is also one of the brightest stars in the night sky we see through the course of the year. In fact, it’s the fourth brightest star we can see in our night sky. It’s a little over 42 light years away, with just one light year equaling almost six trillion miles. Capella is actually not one, but two stars orbiting each other, separated by about 100 million miles. There’s no way we can see that with even a large amateur telescope. The two Capella stars are both super large versions of our home star the sun. They’re both close to ten million miles in diameter. Our own sun is not even one million miles in girth.
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, “Stars, a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications available at bookstores at http://www.adventurepublications.net
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