BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Auriga the Charioteer

The constellation Auriga represents a charioteer, but he has no chariot. However he does have a she-goat and two kids, as well as a rare ring galaxy and a runaway star. Capella is one of the sky's brightest stars, but it also has some surprises.

Auriga the Charioteer

I love it when Capella crests the horizon.

Oh, damn I meant Canopus.

Auriga is nice too. I like goats.

Jilly, I can tell you live around - or south of - 37 degrees latitude! I'm afraid that Canopus never skims my horizon -- or even get anywhere near it. I understand that you can see it from Lick Observatory south of San Francisco, which is about as far north on the west coast of the USA that Canopus is visible.

Capella, on the other hand, is circumpolar for me, which means it can be seen all year round (though not necessarily when I would want to be up). I saw it high in the sky last night, also Jupiter and Mars, and the Moon looking as though it were lying on its back.

Yes, I live in Arizona. It makes me happy in the dead of winter to see some Southern/borderline constellations like Lepus and Columba and Carina. I had to go deep into Baja, Mexico, though, to see the Southern Cross and the Magellanic Clouds.

I saw Canopus in Australia and will see it again in Bolivia.

Star parties are fun because you are surrounded by amateur astronomers.

Here is the faint emission nebula IC 410. The nebula surrounds NGC 1893, a young galactic star cluster where hot, bright cluster stars energize the glowing gas. What look like two cosmic tadpoles are sizeable - about 10 light years long - sites of star formation. IC 410 lies some 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Auriga.

Image Credit: Juan Ignacio Jimenez