WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 13STRANGE UNIVERSE
February is official Choose Your Favorite
Constellation Month. Well, OK — maybe it’s
not exactly official. I just made it up. But with
the holidays over, the nights still lengthy, and the
deepest cold behind us, let’s join the procession of
skygazing poets, philosophers, and science lovers
spanning cultures and centuries who have deemed one
constellation worthier than the rest.
After all, not a single one of them has
ever been recorded as saying, “I like all the
constellations equally,” because that would
be a transparent lie. We all have favorites.
Favorite political parties, favorite restau-
rants, favorite cars. And favorite
constellations.
Still, picking just one is a tall order. If
you’re still deciding, a helpful method is to
first eliminate the barely-there patterns
like Sextans, which resembles a sextant in
the way I resemble George Clooney. Of the
88 constellations, half are easy to toss out
due to faintness or incomprehensibility. Leo Minor gets
whacked, along with Camelopardalis, which is a cir-
cumpolar Giraffe that stares at us every clear night,
even if you’ve never noticed it.
How did that last one even get started? We at least
know the perpetrator — Dutch theologian and cartog-
rapher Petrus Plancius — and that the crime happened
410 years ago. We’ll have to fill in unknown details with
educated guesses. One night, Plancius — perhaps after
imbibing a bit — insisted there was a giraffe in the sky
until his friends humored him. “Sure, Pete, it’sobviously a giraffe, we all see it, now go to bed.” The
rumor spread and soon everyone was stuck with it.
Equuleus, Sculptor, Mensa, Grus — the forgettable
patterns are easy to spot because they’re hard to spot.
Conversely, if we assess winners based on their
faithfulness to what they’re supposed to
resemble, then in my opinion, only two could
achieve first place: Orion and Scorpius. Thanks
to his striking belt, Orion really does look like a
person, even if the ancient Sumerians saw these
same stars as a sheep instead of a man. Still, the
recognizable belt alone isn’t what qualifies him
as a hunter. Other occupations also wear belts,
by which logic Orion could just as easily be a
taekwondo instructor or an accountant.
But a hunter he is, even if he appears to be
fighting with a bull using only his shield, while
his sword hangs from that recognizable belt.
While many licensed hunters might question the
wisdom of trying to obtain dinner by engaging
a bull in hand-to-hand combat, the Greek gods
apparently sympathized by making his adver-
sary a bull that consists of only a head, along
with a miniature body formed solely by the little
Pleiades star cluster.
Scorpius suffers no such anatomical defects. In
southern locales where its magnificent tail ascends high
above the horizon, it may well take the trophy, espe-
cially with its countless blue stars contrasting so vividly
with the single blazing orange heart marked by Antares.
Still, it’s a close call.
Alternatively, the largest constellation
might be deemed the best, but alas, there’s
no clear standout. The sky presents a close
three-way tie. Hydra takes up 1,303 square
degrees, just nine more than Virgo, which
in turn has just 14 more than Ursa Major.
This trio alone occupies some 10 percent of
the sky! By contrast, the three smallest star
figures — Crux, Equuleus, and Sagitta —
together inhabit just half of one percent.
Or should the winning constellation be
the home of the most famous star? If so,
the trophy belongs to either Ursa Minor
(which contains the North Star) or else Canis Major,
blazing fiercely with Sirius, the night’s brightest in a
landslide. The Dog Star has lots of cultural lore, though
its competitor Polaris is more useful for navigation.
Alas, there are too many worthy categories. And we
haven’t even considered those containing extraordinary
telescope targets. So, you’re free to choose your own.
There’s no wrong answer. Except maybe the giraffe.Choosing your favorite constellation requires
some serious consideration.What’s the best?
Orion (at left) is
immortalized in the
sky fighting with
Taurus the Bull,
whose V-shaped
head and small body
sit on the right side of
this image. SAM DELONGWe all have
favorites.
Favorite
political
parties, favorite
restaurants,
favorite cars.
And favorite
constellations.BROWSE THE “STRANGE UNIVERSE” ARCHIVE
AT http://www.Astronomy.com/BermanBY BOB BERMAN
Bob’s recent book,
Earth-Shattering
(Little, Brown and
Company, 2019),
explores the greatest
cataclysms that have
shaken the universe.