Alnath

I like stars. I even like weird, insignificant stars.

There’s this star called Alnath, or Beta Tauri. It’s a boring star, pretty much only notable for being first magnitude. Except for one thing: It’s shared between two constellations, like Alpheratz, but a little less obvious to early viewers of the night sky.

This is actually a very useful characteristic, as it’s now easy to define the border between the constellations Taurus the bull and Auriga, the circle. I mean Auriga the charioteer with his two kids. As in goats. Yeah, that’s a topic for later. So, when people say that a planet is in a constellation, like Jupiter was in Taurus for a while, people know where to look. But, how can a person find Alnath? Easy, for I have drawn a chart.

So, start at Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, but beware of Jupiter or Venus, and go to Orion’s belt. Continue through at virtually the same angle to the bright orange star Aldebaran, called Borgil by Tolkien but that’s neither here nor there.

Turn left at a ninety degree angle and the next bright star is Alnath. It’s in a circle of stars with a very bright yellow one called Capella, as labeled. Also featured are some fun things to look at with binoculars or a small telescope, though Triangulum might be hard to find!

There you go. Now you can find the border between Taurus the bull and Auriga the circle.