Winter Sky Tour

Stargazing

Winter Sky Tour Home Page

The bitter chill of a clear winter night is compensated by the fire and brilliance of the sky above. No other time of the year offers so many bright stars and deep sky wonders so close together. This is where I started my first ventures into astronomy, 40 years ago, as a child with my Dad's binoculars (which I still use) so these stars hold a special sense of distant nostalgia for me as well.

The winter sky is, of course, also the prime testing ground for all our new Christmas gifts.

The account here is the agenda that I loosely follow in providing a guided tour of the winter skies as visible from 45° North Latitude. This tour is designed for one topic to lead to the next, so it flows nicely and still manages to teach Astronomy under the night sky as we caravan from one constellation to another. Aside from the binoculars and telescopes I usually make a point of also bringing a highly focused flashlight which serves as an effective pointer for tracing out constellations.

View to the South

View to the North

Index to the Tour

Orion & Taurus

Auriga

The Andromeda Legend

Perseus the Hero

Ursa Major & Ursa Minor

The Zodiac Constellations

Canis Major

Overview of the Tour

The blue arrows map out the basic flow of the tour.

The Top Attractions

As long as people can run in and out of the cabin to warm up, or if you have an especially hard-core gritty cold-resistant (i.e. native-born Wisconsin) group, the full winter tour is fine. Some nights, though, only the bravest will dash out to see what you have to show - quick quick quick. In that case, these are the best items to hit - the ones that the kids (and the adults) are talking about days later.

Feature	Naked Eye	Binoculars	Telescope
The Great Orion Nebula		✔	✔
The Pleiades	✔	✔	✔
The Andromeda Galaxy	✔	✔	✔
γ Andromedae			✔
δ Cephei	✔
Algol the Demon Star	✔
The Double Cluster		✔	✔
Mizar & Alcor	✔
The Beehive	✔	✔	✔

Feature	Visual	Binocs	Scope
The Great Orion Nebula		✔	✔
The Pleiades	✔	✔	✔
The Andromeda Galaxy	✔	✔	✔
γ Andromedae			✔
δ Cephei	✔
Algol the Demon Star	✔
The Double Cluster		✔	✔
Mizar & Alcor	✔
The Beehive	✔	✔	✔