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Far from any lights, the sky fills with stars. Drawn from real star positions; bigger dots are brighter stars. See it from a city or the suburbs in the app.

✨ Constellation

Aries

The Ram: a small, bent line of stars, the first sign of the zodiac.

Name means: The Ram
Best seen: December evenings
Where to see it: Almost everywhere on Earth
Brightest star: Hamal
Stars in the pattern: 4

Did you know?

The Sun passes in front of Aries from about mid-April to mid-May.
About 2,000 years ago the Sun was in Aries at the March equinox, which is why the zodiac starts here. A slow wobble of Earth’s axis has since moved that point into Pisces.

In this part of the sky

Taurus The Bull, with red Aldebaran as its glowing eye. Pisces The Fishes: two fish tied together with a cord, in a faint V of stars.

More NASA photos of AriesStraight from NASA’s image library, in the app

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All of night sky

Orion The Hunter, with three bright stars in a row for his belt. Ursa Major The Great Bear, home of the Big Dipper. Ursa Minor The Little Bear, with Polaris at the tip of its tail. Cassiopeia A bright W of five stars, named after a boastful queen. Scorpius The Scorpion, with red Antares at its heart. Leo The Lion, whose head is a backwards question mark of stars.

Facts: Star patterns: d3-celestial (IAU figures, Hipparcos star data). Stories: traditional Greek and Roman myths. Open Aries in the app.