Week of Oct. 18 -- 24, 2009 by Dennis Mammana on Creators.com

Recently

Week of February 12-18, 2012: As the World Turns … Most people know that Earth's rotation causes the sun to rise in the east and set in the west. Of course, the same is true for the moon, planets and stars. To understand what's happening, try this experiment. Stand in the middle of a room and, …Read more. Week of February 5-11, 2012: The ‘Linking' Star Constellations are like states. Just as the continental U.S. is divided into 48 such states — some large and some small — the heavens are also divided into 88 constellations. And just as every city in the U.S. (except for the District of …Read more. Week of January 29-February 4, 2012: The Great Celestial Hunter One of my favorite constellations in all the heavens has made its grand return to our evening sky, much as Robert Frost described in the opening lines of his famous poem "Star-Splitter": You know Orion always comes up sideways. Throwing a …Read more. Week of January 22-28, 2012: The Moon and Venus at Dusk Last week, I wrote about a rather faint group of stars known as Camelopardalis, the giraffe. I don't know how many of my readers took my challenge to get out and find this constellation, but I thought it wise to come back this week with something a …Read more.

Week of Oct. 18 -- 24, 2009

Not all constellations are created equally. Few things illustrate this better than a glance high in the south this week after dark.

There you'll spot the grand Summer Triangle, traced by the three bright stars Deneb, Vega and Altair; but nearby, you'll find a few smaller constellations that are often lost in the glare of the triangle's fame. These include such star groupings as Delphinus, Equuleus, Sagitta, Lacerta and Vulpecula — most of which you've probably never encountered. So maybe it's time to check out these often-ignored celestial gems.

This week after dark, the moon isn't too bright in the evening sky, and this would be a good time to search for these since many of their stars are tough to find even under dark rural skies.

Let's begin with Delphinus — perhaps the easiest of the bunch to spot. Just to the east of the triangle, this group of five stars really does look like a tiny dolphin leaping from the water. In ancient mythology, Delphinus was the dolphin that carried the Greek poet Arion away from his enemies.

Just to the east of the dolphin lies another beloved animal: Equuleus, the little horse. Equuleus forms an ancient group whose origins are shrouded in history.

It was mentioned by the first-century astronomer Claudius Ptolemy in his great book "Almagest" but, since Ptolemy borrowed much of his material from other writers, it may have actually been created by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus three centuries earlier. The second tiniest constellation in the sky — and one of the faintest — Equuleus is difficult to see even under even the darkest of conditions.

On the other side of Delphinus — to its west — lies Sagitta, which has been identified as a stray arrow shot by Sagittarius, the archer, as one shot by Apollo to kill the Cyclops or even as one of Cupid's arrows. This is the smallest of all constellations in the heavens and has no stars bright enough to see from under city or suburban lights.

The remaining two star groupings are relatively new, created by the 17th-century astronomer Johannes Hevelius. He created Lacerta, the lizard, to enclose the stars of such a tiny area of the sky that no other constellation would fit it, and Vulpecula, the fox, which originally had a stellar companion: a goose.

Oddly, the fox remains, but the goose no longer seems to appear on modern star charts. Hmmmm...

To find out more about Dennis Mammana and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.