Looking south
In March, the constellations of winter described on previous pages are still visible to the west, and on this map we’ve also marked a large triangle of bright stars, known as the Winter Triangle, consisting of Betelgeuse, Procyon and brilliant Sirius. But some constellations that will feature in the spring skies are now coming into view. Chief among these is Leo, the Lion, which is now high in the sky in the south-east. You can use a line from Betelgeuse and Procyon to help find it.
If you thought that the constellations don’t look anything like what they’re supposed to be, Leo will change your mind. You really can see a crouching lion here in the stars, with its proud head marked by a curve of stars also known as the Sickle. Between Gemini and Leo lies Cancer, but you need fairly dark skies to see anything at all here in light-polluted skies. But stick with it, because in binoculars Cancer contains a nice large star cluster, known as Praesepe, also visible with the naked eye in country skies. Because the Zodiac runs through Gemini, Cancer and Leo, there may be bright planets in this part of the sky.
Below Cancer and Leo lies one end of the largest constellation in the sky, Hydra, the Water Monster. This wriggles all the way into the stars of summer, coming up in the east. Its only bright star is Alphard.
Looking north
Most of the constellations in the northern sky are always to be seen in this direction – it’s just their orientation that changes from month to month. Look for the seven stars of the Plough, high up up in the north-east, and the W-shape of Cassiopeia, high up in the north-west at this time of year. The Plough is known as the Big Dipper in North America. Use its two right-hand stars to point towards the Pole Star, Polaris, which is always in the same position in the sky. Once you’ve found it, you can use it to get your bearings on any night, though all the other northern constellations wheel around it anticlockwise.
Polaris is a second-magnitude star, about the same as the stars in the Plough or Cassiopeia, so don’t expect anything particularly bright. It’s just by chance that this millennium it happens to be very close to the pole of the sky, but there is a slow movement of the sky over the centuries that shifts the position of the stars, and 1000 years ago it wasn’t as close as it is now.
Auriga is starting to sink down towards the western horizon but it’s still high up. It’s in the shape of a pentagon, with Capella, one of the brightest stars in the sky, at its northern tip. Next to Capella is a triangle of three stars which, though much fainter, makes the whole constellation very recognisable. Below Auriga is Perseus, which like the others on this map is always visible somewhere in the northern sky.
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