Starwatch: how to see Pegasus the winged horse

Seventh-largest constellation is most easily spotted by finding the square denoting the horse’s body

We began the month with a look at the constellation of Cassiopeia, the vain queen who inspired the wrath of Poseidon, so we will end it with a look at another constellation derived from that same myth: Pegasus, the winged horse.

In the Greek myth, the hero Perseus rode Pegasus to the shoreline to save Cassiopeia’s daughter, Andromeda, from Cetus, the sea monster unleashed by Poseidon. As such, Pegasus is another of the original 48 constellations listed in the 2nd century by the astronomer Ptolemy.

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