11/22/11 – Ephemeris – The constellation Auriga the charioteer
Tuesday, November 22nd. The sun will rise at 7:47. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 20 minutes, setting at 5:08. The moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 5:51 tomorrow morning.
Rising in the east northeast is the bright star Capella and its pentagonal constellation Auriga the Charioteer. Auriga appears to be hunched down in his chariot carrying 4 goats. Capella is the mother goat, and a slim triangle of stars near her are her kids. Perhaps the kids in the chariot were such a distraction that he crashed. So maybe the gods placed them in the sky as a warning. In fact that triangle is an asterism widely known as the Kids. The Milky Way runs through Auriga and it is the home of several star clusters that appear as fuzzy spots in binoculars. Capella for us in northern Michigan never sets. It is a winter star that can be seen year round. It’s disconcerting to spot it scraping the northern horizon in July.
* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.
Addendum
The Constellations Cassiopeia, Perseus and Auriga. Cartes du Ciel
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 
The eight February constellations include a few well-known groups such as Gemini, the Twins, and Canis Major, the Great Dog. Located in these constellations are seven Messier objects. All of these are open star clusters except for M79, which is a beautiful globular cluster located in the constellation of Lepus, the rabbit. The constellation Auriga contains the most, with three open clusters worthy of some serious observation. Gemini is home to two famous bright stars known as Castor and Pollux. The February sky also reveals Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. At magnitude -1.46, this bright star dominates the winter night.