Week of September 28 - October 4, 2025
One of my favorite times of year has arrived. The sweltering heat is behind us, and I can get out more frequently to explore our beautiful desert, as well as enjoy the beginning of the college and NFL football seasons, and the Major League Baseball playoffs.
And, of course, spend comfortable nights outdoors among the stars.
The evening sky at this time of year displays the best of both the summer and winter skies. The Milky Way continues to stream from northeast to southwest, while the eastern sky is beginning to fill with the "new" stars of autumn.
Saturn now shines at its brightest, rising over the eastern horizon shortly after sunset. It's the brightest "star" in that direction, so it will be key to helping us find a couple of star groupings.
If you have a pretty dark sky, you'll find just above Saturn a "circlet" of seven faint stars that's pretty cool to see. This asterism is part of the constellation Pisces, the fishes, and represents the westernmost of the two fishes that supposedly are tied together by a rope.
Distances of the stars outlining the circlet range from about 45 lightyears to about 900 lightyears from Earth. That they all appear about the same brightness tells us that some of them must be remarkably huge and brilliant, while others are smaller and fainter.
Above and to the north of the circlet lie four equally bright stars that form an outline we know as the Great Square of Pegasus. It marks the abdomen of the constellation Pegasus, the flying horse of ancient Greek mythology.
Spotting a flying horse in the sky is not easy, at least not without chemical assistance, but the square itself is quite prominent. In fact, because of how it's tilted, one can even see it as a diamond. And as one who is enjoying the MLB playoffs way too much, I see it as a baseball diamond!
Imagine looking down on a baseball diamond from above. Home plate would be represented by the star in the westernmost (top) corner. Following the stars counterclockwise around the diamond, we find stars that mark first base, second base and third base.
You can take it even further. Look between second and home plate. There you see the pitcher, perhaps talking with the pitching coach and catcher. Just above home plate stands the umpire, and to the right the on-deck batter and batting coach.
Way too many outfielders, though.
The point is that when looking into the starry heavens, we can find all kinds of imagery, and that's part of the fun. When I was a kid, my friends and I would lie outdoors at night and invent our own constellation figures and Latinized names. But you'll have to buy me a beer or two to get me to reveal the silliness we came up with!
Try it yourself this week. You've got Saturn as a good starting point; find the circlet and the square, then see if you can create any other asterisms of your own.
OK, enough of this stargazing stuff. I think there's a ballgame on TV!
Visit Dennis Mammana at dennismammana.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at creators.com.
Both the Great Square of Pegasus and a circlet of stars above Saturn will be visible in the night sky this week.
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