How to find Gemini
The twin stars Castor and Pollux, head of the winter Twins and source of the Geminid meteors.
Pollux — an orange giant; slightly brighter than its twin Castor.
Gemini is marked by two bright stars of nearly equal brightness — Castor and Pollux — that represent the heads of the mythological twins, with two roughly parallel lines of fainter stars trailing down as their bodies.
It's a winter constellation, high overhead on January evenings, and the radiant of December's reliable Geminid meteor shower.
Castor and Pollux
Pollux is the brighter of the two and has a distinctly orange tint; Castor is white and is actually a remarkable six-star system, though it looks single to the eye. Together they're an easy, memorable pair.
How to find it
- From Orion, go up and to the left (north-east) to two bright stars close together — Castor and Pollux
- The fainter twin bodies trail back toward Orion
- Highest overhead on winter evenings
Deep-sky highlights
- Open cluster M35 near Castor's foot — lovely in binoculars
- The Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392), a small planetary nebula for telescopes
Stella shows exactly when Gemini is highest from your location tonight — and whether the sky is worth it.
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