Cet - Cetus the Sea Monster or Whale

Taurus the Bull is easily spotted. Its head is the Hyades, a V-shaped cluster of stars. His horns point outward from the V. Aldebaran is the red eye of the Bull as he charges down upon us.

Water jar pattern near Pegasus.

A small zodiac constellation with only two easily visible stars.

South of Aries and Pisces, one of the largest constellations. Trace to the second-magnitude star Beta-Ceti (Diphda, near the flukes) by following a line southward from Alpheratz (the corner of Pegasus and Andromeda) through gamma-Pegasi, across Pisces and Cetus.

The River Eridanus flows northward (like the Nile) from the bright star Achernar (Arabic for "End of the River") to Kursa (beta-Eridani) near Rigel in Orion. Eridanus is the longest (not largest) constellation, spanning over 50 degrees of declination, and its many faint stars glitter like reflecting light off the surface of its waves.

A small constellation of faint stars nestled within a bend of the river (Eridanus), low in the south.

South of Pegasus and Andromeda, near Aquarius. Pisces represents two fish tied together by two cords:

• The western fish, a pentagon of stars just south of Pegasus, is an asterism known as the circlet.
• The other fish lies on the opposite side of Pegasus, just under Andromeda.

The brightest star, alpha-Piscium, is known as El-Rischa or the "knot" because it ties the two cords together with the two fish on the opposite ends. Alpha-Piscium lies nestled up next to Mira, a bright variable star of the constellation Cetus the Whale.

Located south of the flukes of Cetus the Whale. Trace to it by following a line southward from Alpheratz (the corner of Pegasus and Andromeda) through gamma-Pegasi, across Pisces and Cetus. This line will run through Beta-Ceti (Diphda) just before reaching the faint stars of Sculptor (alpha-Sculptoris is only magnitude 4.3). Look for it from northern latitudes barely visible low in the south during September and October.