STARGAZING
The Great Square of Pegasus
The Great Square of Pegasus is an autumn landmark in the night sky. This large asterism, or group of stars, belongs to the constellation Pegasus, the Flying Horse in Greek mythology. Three of its stars plus the end star of Andromeda make up the Square. The asterism is fairly easy to spot, as it is one of the largest geometrical shapes in the night sky.
You’ll find the Square very high in the southern sky. Face south and look almost overhead between 8 and 10 p.m. The Great Square is big—quite a bit bigger than your fist at arm’s length. Its four corner stars shine at 2nd and 3rd magnitude, a little less bright than the stars of the Big Dipper.
The Square is composed of four stars; Markab, Scheat, Algenib, and Alpheratz. Markab is a magnitude 2.5 blue-white star 100 light years away. Scheat is a red giant star ninety times the Sun’s diameter and over 200 light years away. Algenib is a blue-white star 409 light years away.
The star Alpheratz marks the upper left corner of the Great Square of Pegasus. This star is shared with another constellation, Andromeda. Look for a line of stars that extends to the left of Alpheratz. If it is a moonless night and you are away from light pollution, see if you can make out a misty patch, which appears slightly elongate. Through binoculars or a small telescope you’ll be looking at M-31, the Andromeda Galaxy.
M-31, the Andromeda Galaxy, represents an island of 300 billion stars lying 2.2 million light-years from Earth. It is the furthest object stargazers can see with the naked eye. M-31 will appear cloudlike even through a small telescope. But a cloud it is not. The galaxy is a gigantic family of stars much larger than and similar in shape to our own Milky Way Galaxy. The light we see now actually left the galaxy over 2.2 million years ago.
The moonless nights in the early part of November provide an opportunity to locate the Great Square of Pegasus. If you are blessed with a dark sky viewing place, you might also be able to look back in time to over 2 million years ago when the Andromeda Galaxy was emitting the light you see in the year 2002. Happy stargazing!
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