Auriga

What is Auriga?

Constellations· Winter evenings (N) · a pentagon overhead, north of Orion. The charioteer cradling a goat. A large pentagon topped by yellow Capella rides high on winter nights, with a small triangle of "kids" beside it. The Milky Way runs through, bringing the open clusters M36, M37 and M38 into binocular range.

Where Auriga is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=con:Auriga — location and time set automatically, no login.

Stars of the figure

The 2 brightest of the 7 stars used in the figure (7 lines). Lower magnitude means brighter.

Deep-sky objects near this constellation

Constellation basics

Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.

Frequently asked

When can I see Auriga?

winter evenings, December–February.

How do I find Auriga?

the pentagon topped by bright Capella high above Orion.

What is the brightest star in Auriga?

Capella, magnitude 0.1.

Where is Auriga in the sky right now?

Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.

A star eclipsed for two years every 27 — Epsilon Aurigae

Epsilon Aurigae, one of the stars of the "kids" triangle beside Capella, is an eclipsing binary that dims every 27.1 years and takes nearly two years to recover. An eclipse that long cannot be produced by a single star passing in front, and the nature of the eclipser was argued over for more than a century. The most recent eclipse ran from August 2009 to summer 2011, and the next is predicted for 2036.

During the 2009–2011 eclipse an infrared interferometer and a large collaboration of amateur observers settled the matter: the eclipser is a vast dust disk several AU across surrounding a B-type star, seen edge-on and crawling slowly across the primary. This 5th-magnitude star overhead in winter is an object watched across generations, with twenty years to wait until the next eclipse.

The constellation in depth

Auriga is Erichthonius, the lame king of Athens said to have invented the chariot, or a herdsman holding Amalthea, the goat that nursed the infant Zeus. Capella is Latin for "little she-goat", and the small triangle of stars beside it are the Kids. Elnath, the pentagon's southern corner, is now officially assigned to Taurus. Auriga sits on the Milky Way opposite the galactic centre, so its background is thick with faint stars and clusters.

Capella is two yellow giants 43 light-years away, circling each other every 104 days — a single point to the eye, but a nearby preview of how Sun-like stars age. Epsilon Aurigae is one of the sky's great puzzles: every 27 years a vast dusty disk eclipses it for about two years, most recently in 2009–2011. The three open clusters M36, M37 and M38 lie between 4,000 and 4,500 light-years away and were catalogued by Messier in the 1760s.

On winter evenings look north of Orion, almost overhead, for the bright yellow star Capella. Five stars hang from it in a large pentagon, and the small triangle right beside Capella is the Kids. Sweep the inside of the pentagon with binoculars to find the three open clusters. Set the Sky view to a January evening to see the whole figure.

Related

Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.