Jupiter is high overhead now. Except for the moon, it will be
the brightest thing in the evening sky this month, and is a good
pointer to part of a rather large asterism. An asterism is just
a recognizable pattern of stars, and the one I am writing about
this month is called the winter hexagon. Although a hexagon has
only six sides, this asterism will help you learn eight
different bright winter stars in six different constellations.
The way you get eight stars is that the center of this hexagon
has a bright star, and one of the points has a pair of twin
stars. Learning these brighter stars in the region will help you
star-hop to the numerous faint clusters and nebulae requiring
binoculars or a telescope. Let’s start in the center. If you can
find Orion, Betelgeuse is the bright red star above and to the
left of the three belt stars. This is the center of the hexagon,
and a good starting place to tell you how to find the six points
around the edge. We’ll start with the brightest point, Sirius,
and continue co