Find the Great Square of Pegasus in the Evening Sky

 

This is a great time for stargazing because it gets dark early, but it is not very cold. So get out and look and see what you can find. What I call the landmark for the autumn evening sky is the Great Square of Pegasus. When you locate the Great Square, you can then find Pegasus and Andromeda and perhaps Perseus.

Locate the Great Square by drawing an imaginary line from the North Star (last star in the handle of the Little Dipper) through the last star in Cassiopeia and that line will point to a corner of the Great Square. This is the point at which Andromeda attaches to the Great Square.

Andromeda is shaped like a crooked V with the point of the V being one of the stars of the Great Square. The other three stars of the Great Square are part of Pegasus, with one of them having a reddish tint. Above Andromeda is Perseus, shaped a little like a Y, and near Perseus is Cassiopeia, shaped like a W.

A useful tool for stargazing is Uncle Al’s Starwheel which you can download for free. I put together 4 worksheets called Sacred Sky Worksheets, Locating constellations, an aid for finding constellations in each season. You can locate them here and print them.