The Plough can be found low down in the north eastern sky when viewing from mid-northern latitudes at this time of year.

When favourably placed, the entire constellation can be seen from locations to the north of latitude 12°S and portions of Cassiopeia can be glimpsed from Australia, South Africa and all but the southern reaches of South America.Ī general guide to locating Cassiopeia is to use the two end stars in the ‘bowl’ of the Plough as pointers, these being the two stars we use to locate Polaris, the Pole Star. The constellation represents the mythological Queen Cassiopeia, wife of King Cepheus and mother to Andromeda, the beautiful maiden rescued by Perseus from the terrible sea monster (for more about the exploits of Perseus see Cassiopeia stands out quite well and should be spotted fairly easily by observers at mid-northern latitudes, being located a little to the west of the overhead point during winter evenings. Our focus for now, however, is directed towards the prominent ‘W’ or ‘M’ formation of stars known as Cassiopeia which, along with the Plough (part of the larger constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear) and Ursa Minor (the Little Bear), completes the trio of conspicuous star groups that grace the far northern skies. The area of sky we see here is home to the better known constellations Ursa Major (the Great Bear), Ursa Minor (the Little Bear) and Cassiopeia (Cassiopeia), as well as a number of fainter and less well known groups such as Draco (the Dragon), Cepheus (Cepheus) and Camelopardalis (the Giraffe).

The constellation cassiopeia