Observing asterisms lets you catch

new glimpses of old areas of the sky.

by Phil Harrington

FINDING
IN THE SKY
FOR YEARS, PSYCHOLOGISTS HAVE USED
the Rorschach inkblot test to analyze a persons psychological
profile. Observing asterisms is a bit like that. Asterisms are shapes
and figures drawn in an observers mind by playing connect-thedots among random, close-set stars. Some people can imagine fanciful creatures, while others see more down-to-earth things.
Here is a guide that you can use throughout the year to enjoy
some of the skys best asterisms.

Spring
The Broken Engagement Ring is drawn from seven suns in an
oval about 1.5 west of Merak [Beta () Ursae Majoris]. Keep an
eye out for a pair of 6th- and 7th-magnitude stars. The latter is the
brightest star in the ring, and so marks its diamond. The rest are
arranged in a damaged oval. From the shape its in, the ring must
have been through quite a battle. So, it only seems appropriate to
call it the Broken Engagement Ring.
Although it doesnt have much to offer by eye, the tiny constellation Leo Minor holds a fun port of call for binoculars and small
telescopes. Back in 1988, Ohio amateur Dan Hudak described in
that summers issue of Deep Sky magazine an asterism that looked
like a celestial Sailboat. The ships bow is 7th-magnitude 22 Leo
Minoris, the groups brightest star. Eight additional stars complete
the picture. Through binoculars, the sailboat seems to have capsized because its mast points toward the south.
More than a decade ago, while scanning southeastern Leo with
my binoculars, I happened to pass 5th-magnitude Tau () Leonis.
Tau teams with a fainter point of light (SAO 118879) to its southeast to create a pretty double star through binoculars. But then I
noticed there was more here to see. Placing Tau toward the
Phil Harrington is a longtime contributing editor of Astronomy
magazine and the author of our monthly column on observing the sky
with binoculars.

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A ST R O N O M Y JA N UARY 2017

northwestern corner of the field, I noticed not one, not two, but
three more faint doubles. Add them together and you get an asterism that I like to call the Double Cross, since all four pairs collectively fall into an X pattern. It turns out that none of the four pairs
is a true physical binary. But that doesnt detract from their unique
appearance through binoculars.
Is it a portal into another dimension? A delta-wing starship?
Those are just two of the nicknames bestowed on a one-of-a-kind
asterism in Corvus the Crow, commonly known as the Stargate.
Look 3 north of Eta () Corvi for three 6th-magnitude stars in a
triangle pointing northeast. The tip of that triangle is aimed
toward a faint pair of stars that may be just visible in your finder.
Those stars are the brightest in the Stargate. Switching to your
telescope, the Stargate opens into a concentric triangle-within-atriangle pattern of six stars that range in brightness from 7th to
about 11th magnitude.

One of the most famous asterisms

is the Coathanger, a dazzling group
of stars lying in a relatively barren
area of sky in the constellation
Vulpecula. JOS J. CHAMB

EASY-TO-SPOT ASTERISMS
Asterism

Summer
The Coathanger is one of the best-known binocular asterisms
in the entire sky. Lying among the faint stars, the Coathangers
shape stands out beautifully against a background of fainter
points. Five 6th-magnitude stars extending across 1.3 make up
the Coathangers bar, while four more curve southward forming
the hook. While most appear white through binoculars, two show
a slight yellowish or orangish glint to those of us with keen color
perception. The brightest star in the pattern, labeled 4 Vulpeculae,
is an orange spectral type K sun, while the star directly adjacent to
it in the hangers hook is a spectral type M red star.
If youre a bird-watcher, you may have seen a yellow bellied sapsucker or a red winged blackbird. But have you ever seen a Red
Necked Emu? Probably not. The Red Necked Emu accompanies
Cygnus the Swan across the summer night sky. The Emus tail is
marked by 29 Cygni, found partway between Sadr [Gamma ()

Con.

R.A.

Dec.

Size

Airplane

Cas

23h20m

+6220'

60'

Broken Engagement Ring

UMa

10h51.0m

+5609'

20'

Chaples Arc

Cyg

20h04m

3810'

22'
90'

Coathanger

Vul

19h26m

+2000'

Davis Dog

Tau

4h22.5m

+2145' 200'x90'

Double Cross

Leo

11h28m

+251'

120'

Golf Putter

And

1h52.5m

+3730'

20'x95'

Kembles Kite

Cas

3h28m

+7200'

90'x30'

Kembles Cascade

Cam

4h00m

+63

150'

Lacrosse Racket

Aur

5h19m

+3340'

75'

Little Orion

Cyg

20h56m

+4334'

45'

+5930' 70'x125'

Lucky 7

Cas

23h03m

Pakans 3

Mon

6h52.5m

1010'

Red Necked Emu

Cyg

20h13.8m

+3630'

45'

Sailboat

LMi

10h14m

+3130'

45'

Stargate

Crv

12h35.7m

1202'

15'

40'

Con. = Constellation; R.A. = Right ascension (epoch 2000 coordinates);

Dec. = Declination; and Size = Angular size in arcminutes.

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