How to find Pegasus
The Great Square — autumn's giant signpost and a launch point for finding Andromeda.
Enif — the horse's nose, an orange supergiant.
Pegasus dominates the autumn sky through the Great Square — a large, distinctive box of four stars representing the winged horse's body. Once you spot the Square, much of the autumn sky falls into place.
The Square is large and its stars are only moderately bright, which makes it a handy gauge of how dark and transparent your sky is.
The Great Square as a sky-meter
Count how many stars you can see inside the Great Square: under a dark, transparent sky you'll pick out several faint ones, while from a light-polluted suburb the box looks empty. It's a quick, free check of your sky quality.
One corner star, Alpheratz, actually belongs to neighbouring Andromeda, linking the two constellations.
How to find it
- Look high in the south-east on autumn evenings for a large, near-empty square of four stars
- The Square is bigger than most people expect — about a hand-span at arm's length
- From the Square's corner, hop into Andromeda to find the Andromeda Galaxy
Deep-sky highlights
- Globular cluster M15 near Enif — bright and compact
- Stephan's Quintet, a famous galaxy group, lies nearby (large telescopes)
Stella shows exactly when Pegasus is highest from your location tonight — and whether the sky is worth it.
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