Auriga
What is Auriga?
Constellations· Winter evenings (N) · a pentagon overhead, north of Orion. The charioteer holding a goat. On winter nights a large pentagon topped by yellow Capella rides high overhead, with a small triangle of stars, the Kids, beside it. The Milky Way runs through it, bringing the open clusters M36, M37 and M38 within reach of binoculars.
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Stars of the figure
| Star | Magnitude |
|---|---|
| Capella | 0.1 |
| Menkalinan | 1.9 |
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
| Season | winter evenings, December–February |
|---|---|
| Brightest star | Capella (0.1) |
| How to find | the pentagon topped by bright Capella high above Orion |
| Area rank | 21st of 88 |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Hidden for two years every 27 — Epsilon Aurigae
Epsilon Aurigae, one of the stars in the Kids triangle beside Capella, dims about every 27 years, and each time it takes nearly two years to recover. It is a pair of stars in which something passes in front of the bright star, and for the eclipse to last so long the object must be enormous. What it could be was argued over for more than a century.
The most recent eclipse ran from August 2009 into 2011. During it, infrared instruments and many amateur observers watched the star together. The result settled the question: the eclipsing object is a huge disk of dust around a hot blue star. The disk is about four times the distance from Earth to the Sun across and passes slowly in front of the bright star while seen edge-on. The next eclipse of this third-magnitude star is expected in the mid-2030s.
The constellation in depth
Auriga is said to be Erichthonius, a lame king of Athens who invented the chariot, or a herdsman holding Amalthea, the goat that nursed the infant Zeus. Its brightest star, Capella, means little she-goat in Latin, and the three small stars beside it are her kids. Elnath, the pentagon's southern corner, officially belongs to Taurus today.
Capella is a pair of yellow giant stars about 43 light-years away that orbit each other every 104 days. To the eye it is a single point. Both stars have used up the hydrogen in their cores and swelled up in old age, so the pair gives a close-up view of what Sun-like stars become as they age.
Auriga lies in the direction opposite the centre of our galaxy, and the Milky Way runs through it. Sweeping the inside of the pentagon with binoculars brings up the open clusters M36, M37 and M38 one after another. They lie about 4,000 to 4,500 light-years away and were added to Messier's catalogue in the 1760s.
On winter evenings, the bright yellow star almost overhead, north of Orion, is Capella. Five stars hang from it in a large pentagon, and the small triangle right beside it is the Kids. With the Sky view set to a January evening, the whole pentagon appears with the Milky Way running through it.
Frequently asked
- When can I see Auriga?
- Auriga is best seen in winter evenings, December–February.
- How do I find Auriga?
- To find Auriga, look for the pentagon topped by bright Capella high above Orion.
- What is the brightest star in Auriga?
- The brightest star in Auriga is Capella, at magnitude 0.1.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.