# Does anybody besides me have a favorite constellation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 20, 2000, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488 "2000-12-20T06:53:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2000, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488/41 "2000-12-21T00:17:33Z")
I like Orion as well, but I like Taurus even more, since that area of the sky contains the Pleaides, which for my money is the most beautiful naked-eye object in the sky. Even better with binoculars, of course. ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2000, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488/42 "2000-12-21T01:46:56Z")
Considering I work in a planetarium I oughta have something more obscure than Orion as my favorite… but that’s what I usually tell people when I do my star shows. But I do have a cool favorite star, IMHO: We planetarium geeks have annual conferences, and when we go, there’s usually a constellation “shoot-off”, kind of like a spelling bee for constellation identification. (Grand prize is usually a laser pointer.) Last year I was stunned that I was able to actually FIND Triangulum, the Triangle, one of the great-grandaddies of obscure stupid constellations. (It’s a triangle. Three stars. But WHICH three?!) Next round: I miss locating the star Alberio, in Cygnus the Swan! UGH! My favorite star! It’s my favorite because it’s a pretty double star - look at it in a telescope and you’ll see a gold star right up next to a blue star. Very pretty, and fun to show off at star parties. I missed Alberio because the stars in the host planetarium were a little on the dim and fuzzy side, not bright and sharp as I was used to… and I didn’t have much time to double-check before I pointed to it. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2000, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488/43 "2000-12-21T01:54:05Z")
I will always like The Southern Cross as I have fond memories of my first night in Africa, lying on the grass looking up at an unimaginably vast collection of stars that this city boy had never even thought was up there. Sure I knew about all the stars but seeing a night sky where you can’t see a area bigger than a dime without a star in it- so bright you can read by the moonlight easily and the Cross stands out so prominently wow ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2000, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488/44 "2000-12-21T03:22:18Z")
1. Orion 2. Draco ---
**Author:** ![Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonko_The_Sane)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2000, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488/45 "2000-12-21T04:24:20Z")
I like orion the most- It’s easy to find and cool looking. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2000, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488/46 "2000-12-21T05:10:51Z")
**Ursa Major** of course. Though I like the names Draco and Delphius. ---
**Author:** ![Philbuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9a140/32.png) [@Philbuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philbuck)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2000, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488/47 "2000-12-21T06:39:43Z")
Cygnus. Large, elegant, and I spent almost every night of five weeks in a national forest in Washington sleeping outside and looking at it. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2000, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488/48 "2000-12-21T16:24:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by scratch1300 \* > \*\*I think the old Coathanger was one of the first things I looked for when I had binoculars, too. I saw it in _Astronomy_ or _Sky & Telescope_ and went out to see it for myself. Binocular astronomy is the funnest – I’ve got to get myself a new pair and a tripod. \*\* I’m glad I’m not the only one who finds it WAY more fun to take my binocs out. I’m not sure why - we have a big ass telescope, and I’m always screwing around with the binocs. I think maybe it’s because I tend to like constellations and asterisms a little more than Messiers & planets. I also like finding my own. “Hey, look at that! It looks sorta like an upside down cat with the head of a parrot!” ---
**Author:** ![struuter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@struuter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/struuter)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2000, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488/49 "2000-12-21T18:59:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LateComer \* > \*\*Orion, all the way. > > Perhaps you would be interested in the following song: > > [Orion](http://remus.rutgers.edu/JethroTull/Albums/Stormwatch-lyrics.html#Orion) > \*\* Wow…I was certain I’d be the only person to say Orion. And my reason…one very chilly night my older brother, whom I adored blindly and from whom I can’t get the time of day, and I were outside and he looked up and began to sing this song to himself (I imagined he wanted to share it with me…). It’s a Jethro Tull classic. I’m a JT girl. Been my favorite ever since and I wait longingly every year for its return. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2000, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488/50 "2000-12-21T19:33:25Z")
drewbert wrote: > [@](#): > > Next round: I miss locating the star Alberio, in Cygnus the Swan! UGH! My favorite star! It’s my favorite because it’s a pretty double star - look at it in a telescope and you’ll see a gold star right up next to a blue star. Which of the Cygnus stars is Alberio? Alpha Cygni? Beta Cygni? (I have excruciatingly detailed data on most stars within 75 light-years at [http://www.stellar-database.com](http://www.stellar-database.com) , but “Alberio” isn’t in there. I’m worried I might have missed it by accident.) ---
**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2000, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488/51 "2000-12-21T19:54:30Z")
**tracer** , it’s Beta Cygnii, the head of the Swan (though it should be spelled _Albireo_). ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488/52 "2000-12-22T04:05:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by scratch1300 \* > \*\ ***tracer** , it’s Beta Cygnii, the head of the Swan (though it should be spelled _Albireo_). \*\* Yeah, I’m always doing that. Hell of a way to treat my “favorite” star, eh? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-besides-me-have-a-favorite-constellation/46488.md?page=2)