Constellations in north-western hemisphere?

Question

I'm very interested in astronomy. I will be going out to look at the stars in a few hours :) and I want to know which constellations I'll be able to see to the north, south, east, and west. I live in the North/Western Hemisphere. No, I don't have a telescope.

What about Orion? I thought I saw it yesterday.

Answer 1

Technically there are lots of constellation in sight, but only a few of them are prominent enough to be noticeable. In the mid-evening, about 8:00 pm:

Look south. See Orion (looks like a man with a belt of three stars, some people confuse part of it with the dipper). That's your anchor for a lot of constellations. To the lower left is Canus Major, the Big Dog, nipping at his heals, headed by the brightest star, Sirius.

To your right, Orion holds out a bow, and is shooting at Taurus the Bull -- see bright Aldebaran and beyond that, the Pleides cluster.

From Orion to your upper left is the twin stars Castor and Pollux, marking Gemini.

Back to Orion. From feet to head, he points to a bright star higher in the sky -- that is bright Capella, in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer.

That's enough for one night!

Answer 2

Okay, this might take a while. From the northwestern United States at 8PM these are the constellations that you can see:

To the East: Leo, Leo Minor, Sextans (rising), Cancer, Coma Berenices (rising), Ursa Major (Big Dipper).

To the South: Monoceros, Canis Major (look for Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky), Puppis (low on the horizon), Lepus, Orion (that one should be easy), Eridanus, and low on the southern horizon are Columba Caelum, and Fornax.

To the West: Cetus (setting), close to the Moon are Pisces, Aries, and Triangulum. Andromeda can also be seen to the west.

To the North: Lacerta, Cassiopia, Draco (low on the northern horizon), Ursa Minor (Little Dipper), and Canes Venatici (below Big Dipper to the northeast)

Near the Zenith (Overhead): Taurus, Perseus, Camelopardalis, Auriga (look for a bright star that's called Capella), Gemini, and Lynx.

That pretty much covers all of them

Answer 3

You don't need a telescope to look at constellations. There are far too many constellations visible at one time to list them. Seriously, the best way to learn them is to either buy a device called a planisphere (they only cost a few dollars) or to have somebody with you pointing out the constellations. It would be very difficult for you to see most of them on your own just from somebody describing them here.

If you go to Google and search for "planisphere" it is likely you will find some visual charts to aid you.

Answer 4

There are many free planetarium programs on the net. I'd suggest downloading one. An old favorite, not by any means state-of-the-art but still good, is skyglobe. Google it.

Looking southwest, high in the sky is Orion. The bright star below it is Sirius. Saturn is to the left.

Answer 5

Hi. There is a great freeware program called " Stellaruim " that will show you. Tonight to the southeast you'll see Orion, Canis Major. Gemini is further east and higher. : http://www.stellarium.org/

Answer 6

These constellation maps should help you...

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=constellation+map&svnum=10&hl=en&sa=N&imgsz=xxlarge