How to Find Sagittarius in the Night Sky

You can see the constellation Sagittarius at different times of the year depending on where you are in the world. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you can see it during the summer months; if you live in the Southern hemisphere, then it's visible during the winter months. The Greeks and Romans thought the constellation resembled a centaur shooting an arrow into the nearby constellation Scorpius. People nowadays often recognize it as resembling a teapot and consider it easier to find when looking for that figure.

Instructions

1. Travel to a location outside a city where the sky is darker. Locate the Milky Way overhead in the night sky.

2. Trace a line from the Milky Way down to the southern horizon. Look for a formation of stars that vaguely resemble a teapot.

3. Locate the spout of the tea kettle, made up of a small triangle of stars, with one star at the bottom and two above.

4. Look for the lid of the tea kettle, to the left upper lip of the spout. The lid is composed of another triangle of stars.

5. Find the handle of the teapot, located to the left of the bottom of the lid. The handle of the teapot is a quadrilateral made up of four stars.

References

• NTL World: Find Sagittarius
• Astromax: Find Sagittarius
• Clark Foundation: Find Sagittarius