STARGAZING LIVE: BACK TO EARTH Starcast 1

As ever, the winter night sky is signposted by a hexagon of six bright stars, which acts as a gateway to six magnificent constellations.

Jupiter is a perfect starting point right now, and to find it after the show, look to the south- east and you’ll see a very bright object roughly 45 degrees above the horizon.

The first star in the Winter Hexagon is directly to the left of Jupiter: it’s called Pollux, and it’s the brightest star in the Gemini constellation.

To find the next star in the hexagon, go back to Jupiter, then look directly upwards until you find the very bright star Capella - the highest point of the hexagon, and the third brightest star in the northern sky. It sits in the chest of Auriga the Charioteer.

Now, find the lowest star in Auriga and look to the right. This line is one of the horns of the constellation Taurus. The two horns lead back to a V-shaped cluster of stars called The Hyades and the star that appears the brightest there is Aldebaran, an orange star over 44 times larger than the Sun.

The next star in the hexagon is Rigel in the constellation of Orion. Follow a line down from Aldebaran to the stars that make up Orion’s belt, then go downwards and towards the right to get to Rigel. It’s the seventh brightest star in the night sky, burning white hot and over 130,000 times brighter than the Sun.

Sirius, the dog star, is in the constellation of Canis Major, and the lowest in the Hexagon. Look down from Rigel towards the south-east and although it’s low, you shouldn’t have any trouble identifying Sirius because it’s the brightest star in the night sky.

The final star in the Winter Hexagon is the binary star Procyon. If you follow a line from Sirius to the first star of the hexagon, Pollux, you’ll find it passes through the small constellation Canis Minor. It only consists of two stars, with Procyon being the lowest of them.

The Winter Hexagon is visible from September to April, and from January on it can be seen after sunset.