Star Chart

There are two February constellations that I want to highlight this month – Canis Major and Gemini.  The winter constellation star chart above will be our guide.

The starting point for our February constellation exploration will be my all time favorite constellation Orion.  I like using Orion as the starting point because it dominates the winter sky and it’s easy to find because of the three stars that line up to form Orion’s belt.  Go outside around 10 pm and face south.  You should be able to find Orion about 45 degrees above the horizon.

Canis Major - The Great Dog

The first constellation we’re going to find is Canis Major – the Great Dog.  Did you know that Canis Major is one of Orion’s hunting dogs?  Canis Minor is the other one.  Canis Major is the bigger of the two dogs.  This constellation is the home of the brightest star in the winter night sky – Sirius.  Sirius is also known as the Dog Star.  See the connection!  Sirius by itself is easy to find because it is a magnitude -1.46 star.  But you can also use the belt of Orion to find it.  Draw a line through Orion’s belt to the south and you will find Sirius and the rest of the Great Dog, Canis Major.

Let’s find Gemini.  Again, we’ll use Orion to help us.  If you start with the star in Orion’s belt farthest to the left and trace a line through his shoulder, you will find Gemini.  Gemini is known as the Twins and is home to one of the most famous pairs of stars in the night sky – Castor and Pollux.  Gemini is also home to a Galactic Cluster known as M35 which contains about 200 stars and can easily be seen with a pair of binoculars.

Happy February constellation hunting!

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