How to find Auriga
When to look
December, January, February, March evenings
Face high overhead
A big lopsided ring of stars with bright yellow Capella at one corner, high overhead on winter evenings. Its southern corner, Elnath, is also the tip of Taurus's horn. Winter evenings, December to March, high overhead; it rises in the north-east on autumn evenings. The drawing below is made from the real positions of its 6 stars, as the sky looks when you face it, with bigger dots for brighter stars. No telescope needed.
Auriga is a big ring of stars. The bright yellow star in it is Capella. Look straight up on winter nights to find it.
Auriga means the charioteer, a person who drives a chariot. Capella, its yellow star, is the sixth-brightest star in the night sky and the brightest one high overhead on winter evenings. Close beside Capella is a small, thin triangle of fainter stars called the Kids.
Capella looks like one star, but it is two yellow giant stars circling each other closely, about 43 light-years away. Binoculars sweeping across the middle of Auriga find three star clusters in a row, known as M36, M37 and M38, each a family of stars born together.
The stars in it
Capella, Menkalinan, Mahasim, Elnath, Hassaleh, Almaaz. The brightest is Capella.
How to find it
- Go out after dark with a grown-up, and give your eyes ten minutes away from screens.
- Face high overhead and look for: a big lopsided ring of stars with bright yellow Capella at one corner, high overhead on winter evenings. Its southern corner, Elnath, is also the tip of Taurus's horn.
- Hold up this page's drawing or the printed card and match the shape to the sky. If the sky is clear.
More star patterns
“Star patterns turn through the night, so the shape may be tipped on its side. Turn your head, not the sky.”