starquality Blog
- Corona Austrina: The Southern Crown
Corona Austrina's arc of stars, its two nearly-matched brightest members, the globular cluster NGC 6541, the Corona Australis Nebula, and the Greek reading of it as a laurel crown.
- Columba: The Dove
Columba the Dove has no classical myth of its own. Here is Phact, Wazn, the globular cluster NGC 1851, and why Petrus Plancius linked it to Noah's dove and the Argonauts' dove instead.
- Circinus: The Compasses
Circinus is a small 1750s Lacaille invention next to Alpha Centauri, with no ancient myth. Its rapidly-oscillating star, the Circinus Galaxy, and how to find it in June.
- Chamaeleon: The Chameleon
Chamaeleon has no ancient myth, only a real lizard mapped by Dutch explorers around 1598. Its three faint stars and how to find it near the south celestial pole in April.
- Carina: The Keel
Carina holds Canopus, the sky's second-brightest star, and the vast Carina Nebula around unstable Eta Carinae. The Argo Navis myth, a Polynesian navigation tradition, and how to find it in March.
- Caelum: The Chisel
Caelum is among the smallest and faintest of the 88 constellations, invented by Lacaille in the 1750s with no ancient myth. Its two stars and how to find it in January, explained.
- Ara: The Altar
The myth behind Ara, the altar of the Titan war, plus its three brightest stars and NGC 6397, one of the two closest globular clusters to Earth. How to find it in July.
- Apus: The Bird of Paradise
Apus was charted from real Dutch sea voyages, not ancient myth. Three orange and yellow giants, a globular cluster near the pole, and how to find it from the southern hemisphere in July.
- Your Next Blessing
One pile reveals why your biggest rejection was actually protecting you. The other reveals why everything had to fall apart before your life could come back together. Choose your pile.
- Antlia: The Air Pump
Antlia has no myth and no bright stars, but it carries NGC 2997, a face-on spiral galaxy. Here's the real story behind Lacaille's air pump and how to find it in April.
- Sextans: The Sextant
Why Sextans has no myth, what Alpha Sextantis and the Spindle Galaxy actually are, and how to find this faint equatorial constellation on the Real Sky map in April.
- Monoceros: The Unicorn
Monoceros as a 17th-century invention with no myth, its faint stars including the triple system Beta Monocerotis, and nebulae like the Rosette and Hubble's Variable Nebula.
- Hydra: The Water Snake (Sea Serpent)
Hydra as the largest of the 88 constellations, the myth of the Lernaean Hydra and Heracles, its lone bright star Alphard, and its Babylonian predecessor Bashmu.
- Cetus: The Sea Monster
Cetus as the sea monster from the Perseus and Andromeda myth, its stars Deneb Kaitos and Menkar, and Mira, the first pulsating variable star ever recognized as one.
- Vulpecula: The Fox
Vulpecula's origin as Hevelius's fox with a goose, its single named star Anser, the Dumbbell Nebula M27, and the Coathanger asterism, plus its role in the first pulsar discovery.
- Triangulum: The Triangle
Why the Greeks called Triangulum "Deltoton," its link to the Nile delta and Sicily's patron goddess Ceres, and M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, one of the farthest naked-eye sights there is.
- Sagitta: The Arrow
Sagitta's two rival Greek myths about Apollo and Hercules, its two brightest stars Gamma and Delta Sagittae, and M71, the loose globular cluster hidden inside it.
- Lynx: The Lynx
The joke behind why Hevelius named Lynx, its three faint stars including Alsciaukat, and NGC 2419, the remote globular cluster called the Intergalactic Wanderer.
- Leo Minor: The Lesser Lion
Why Leo Minor's brightest star, Praecipua, has no Alpha designation, who Johannes Hevelius was, and where to find this faint cub between Leo and Ursa Major.
- Lacerta: The Lizard
How Johannes Hevelius invented Lacerta in 1687, its faint zigzag of stars between Cygnus and Andromeda, and why BL Lacertae named an entire class of active galaxies.
- Equuleus: The Little Horse (The Foal)
Why Equuleus is the second-smallest of the 88 constellations, its two competing foal myths, and how to find Kitalpha tucked beside the much larger Pegasus.
- Delphinus: The Dolphin
Why Delphinus looks like a real dolphin, the Poseidon myth behind it, its role in Chinese Black Tortoise asterisms, and the joke hidden in Sualocin and Rotanev.
- Corona Borealis: The Northern Crown
The myth of Ariadne's crown, its brightest star Alphecca, and why Corona Borealis hosts the Blaze Star, a recurring nova that erupts roughly every 80 years.
- Coma Berenices: Berenice's Hair
The true story behind Coma Berenices, its faint stars near Leo, the Black Eye Galaxy, and why the Coma Star Cluster is visible without any equipment at all.
- Cepheus: The King
The myth of King Cepheus, his three named stars Alderamin, Errai, and Alfirk, and why his constellation hosts the Garnet Star and the Elephant's Trunk nebula.
- Canes Venatici: The Hunting Dogs
The 1687 origin of Canes Venatici, its two named stars Cor Caroli and Chara, and why the Whirlpool Galaxy M51 sits inside this small northern constellation.
- Camelopardalis: The Giraffe
How Camelopardalis got its name, why it has no myth, and how to find its two faint supergiants and the galaxy NGC 2403 near the north celestial pole.
- Serpens: The Serpent
Serpens explained: why it is the sky's only two-piece constellation, Unukalhai its single named star, the Eagle Nebula in its tail, and the medicine-and-renewal myth behind it.
- Ophiuchus: The Serpent Bearer
Ophiuchus explained: the Asclepius myth, Rasalhague and Zeta Ophiuchi's bow shock, the Rho Ophiuchi cloud, and the honest answer to the thirteenth-sign question.
- Hercules: The Hero (Hercules)
Hercules explained: why Beta, not Alpha, is its brightest star, the variable red giant Rasalgethi, the Kneeler myth, and M13, the finest globular cluster in northern skies.