How to find Pegasus
When to look
September, October, November evenings
Face south-east, then south
The Great Square is its body. From Markab, the square's south-west corner, a crooked line of stars runs west to Enif, its nose. Autumn evenings, September to November, high in the south-east and then the south. The drawing below is made from the real positions of its 9 stars, as the sky looks when you face it, with bigger dots for brighter stars. No telescope needed.
Pegasus is a big horse made of stars. Its body is the Great Square. Its neck and head stretch out from one corner.
Pegasus is named for a horse, and you see only its front half. The Great Square is its body, a crooked line of stars from Markab is its neck and head, ending at orange Enif, and two lines of stars from Scheat are its front legs.
Enif, the horse's nose, is an orange supergiant, far bigger than the Sun. Binoculars just past Enif find M15, a ball of more than one hundred thousand old stars. 51 Pegasi, the first star like the Sun found with a planet circling it, in 1995, is in Pegasus too, though it needs a chart to find.
The stars in it
Markab, Scheat, Alpheratz, Algenib, Homam, Biham, Enif, Matar, Sadalbari. The brightest is Alpheratz.
How to find it
- Go out after dark with a grown-up, and give your eyes ten minutes away from screens.
- Face south-east, then south and look for: the Great Square is its body. From Markab, the square's south-west corner, a crooked line of stars runs west to Enif, its nose.
- 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.”