With all the brilliant stars and easy-to-spot constellations now shining in the early evening sky, why not forget them all and start the new year with a challenge.

Just after dark this week, there's a group of stars in the north that I'll bet you've never seen. In fact, I'll bet most experienced stargazers have never seen it. Its name is Camelopardalis and it has to rank right up there with the most obscure constellations in all the heavens.

Camelopardalis is named for the giraffe, or the "leopard camel" as the ancient Greeks knew it. It was probably the 16th century Dutch theologian, cartographer and astronomer Petrus Plancius who conjured this one up, though some believe it might have been named by German astronomer Jacob Bartsch who published Plancius' star maps in a 1624 constellation book.

Though Camelopardalis is formed by extremely faint stars, with some imagination you might actually be able to trace a giraffe. To find it, however, you'll need a fairly dark sky away from the effects of urban light pollution.

First, go outside shortly after dark and face north-northeast. Next, find the Capella — the brilliant sparkling star to the northeast. Capella marks the brightest vertex of a stellar pentagon that outlines the constellation of Auriga, the charioteer.

From Capella, cast your gaze toward the left and you should be able to find Polaris, the North Star. Of course, Polaris is much fainter than Capella, but it forms the end of the Little Dipper's handle.

The stars of the Giraffe lie about midway between Capella and Polaris. Now appearing nearly upside down, Camelopardalis can be traced with two stars that mark its legs, four that form its body, and two more that mark its long neck and face.

Camelopardalis is one of those star groupings that never appears to rise or set from mid-northern latitudes. As a "circumpolar" constellation, it's visible every night to stargazers throughout North America.

The brightest star there — Beta Camelopardalis, it's called — forms the top of the giraffe's front leg. It's a yellow supergiant some 100 times larger than our own sun but, from its tremendous distance of 1,700 light years, it appears rather faint.

Once you find it, however, you should have little trouble completing your New Year's challenge — finding the remaining stars that make up the celestial giraffe.

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.