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| Auriga labelled by Astrometry.Net! |
I thought that we would spend some more time in Auriga since it is high up right now. It turns out the Gregory Chaucer (of Canterbury Tales fame) wrote a book about how to use an astrolabe. An astrolabe is a navigational instrument that allows you to calculate the positions of the stars on the sky --- think about a medieval Celestia or Stellarium. Alkab is a bright giant of spectral type K, so it is the same colour as the nearby giant Arcturus but it is inherently much brighter at about 500 light years distant (Arcturus is only 30 ly away).
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