{"id":34961,"date":"2023-10-13T18:51:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T16:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/968893ce-51ca-4b87-9adc-64f3e26a3a03"},"modified":"2023-10-13T19:46:14","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T17:46:14","slug":"the-stunning-great-square-of-pegasus-stars-are-visible-tonight-heres-how-to-see-them","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/the-stunning-great-square-of-pegasus-stars-are-visible-tonight-heres-how-to-see-them\/","title":{"rendered":"The stunning Great Square of Pegasus stars are visible tonight. Here\u2019s how to see them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rssexcerpt\">The simple way to locate the upside-down flying horse in the night sky tonight. <\/p><p class=\"rssauthor\">By Pete Lawrence\n      <\/p><p class=\"rssbyline\">Published: Friday, 13 October 2023 at 16:51 PM<\/p><hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/><?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body><p>The transition from summer to autumn skies is underway in the UK. The bright, dramatic stars of summer are gradually replaced by more subtle fare, led by Pegasus, the Flying Horse. <\/p><p>This unusual mythological creature is complicated by the fact that it\u2019s only the upper part of the horse\u2019s body that\u2019s represented. Oh, and it appears upside-down in the sky, Pegasus\u2019s head sits in the constellation\u2019s southwest corner, with the star Enif marking its nose.<\/p><p>The horse\u2019s torso is represented by a large geometric shape known as the Great Square of Pegasus. On charts it looks quite prominent, but in reality, its stars aren\u2019t that bright. The sides of the square aren\u2019t of equal length either and to cap it all, only three of the stars actually belong to Pegasus! <\/p><p>The northeast corner star is Alpheratz, the alpha star of Andromeda, the Chained Princess. It once belonged to Pegasus, as Sirrah or Delta Pegasi, but was formally reassigned to neighbouring Andromeda in 1930.<\/p><p>The square is useful as a guide. Immediately south of its southern edge lies the faint Circlet asterism within Pisces, the Fish. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full has-lightbox\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">How to see the great square of Pegasus in the night sky.<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>Use the western side, following its line south for three times its length to arrive at bright Fomalhaut in Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish. Follow the eastern side south a little over twice the side\u2019s length and you\u2019ll arrive at bright Deneb Kaitos \u2018the whale\u2019s tail\u2019, a star belonging to Cetus, the Whale. <\/p><p>Extend the diagonal from Markab through Alpheratz in the northeast to locate three stars of similar brightness in Andromeda. Locate the middle star Mirach, then make a right-angle turn to head up the sky. Keep going for half the length of the square\u2019s southern edge to arrive at the Andromeda Galaxy, M31. <\/p><p><strong>Read more:<\/strong><\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/space\/how-to-spot-the-leo-in-the-night-sky\">How to spot the Leo in the night sky<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/space\/how-can-i-see-the-pleiades-star-cluster\">How can I see the Pleiades star cluster?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/space\/best-astronomy-apps\">The best 5 apps all stargazers should download right now<\/a><\/li><\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The simple way to locate the upside-down flying horse in the night sky tonight. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":34962,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/the-stunning-great-square-of-pegasus-stars-are-visible-tonight-heres-how-to-see-them.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/the-stunning-great-square-of-pegasus-stars-are-visible-tonight-heres-how-to-see-them-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/the-stunning-great-square-of-pegasus-stars-are-visible-tonight-heres-how-to-see-them-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/the-stunning-great-square-of-pegasus-stars-are-visible-tonight-heres-how-to-see-them-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/the-stunning-great-square-of-pegasus-stars-are-visible-tonight-heres-how-to-see-them-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/the-stunning-great-square-of-pegasus-stars-are-visible-tonight-heres-how-to-see-them.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/the-stunning-great-square-of-pegasus-stars-are-visible-tonight-heres-how-to-see-them.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The simple way to locate the upside-down flying horse in the night sky tonight.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/34961"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}