Night Sky Photography -- 03-21-2021 -- Mars Now A Part Of The Winter Circle

Good evening y'all and, as of March 20th, the Northern hemisphere welcomes the spring equinox of 2021!

This evening I was able to capture all of the major constellations and the seven brightest stars of the Winter Circle (or Winter Hexagon) asterism in the night sky on two photographs. Throughout March, Earth's closest celestial neighbor, Mars will unofficially makes up the eighth bright "star" of the Winter Circle. Luna -- now in her waxing moon phase -- can be see just above the Constellation Orion.

I've highlighted the constellations, as well as the Winter Circle and Winter Triangle asterisms.

Capturing the entire Winter Circle in frame in a single photograph is difficult as the asterism is quite large. Procyon, Sirius, and the bright star Betelgeuse in Orion's right shoulder make up the Winter Triangle asterism.

As you can see all of the brightest stars of the constellations and Mars came out very well in both photos, even in the glare of the moon, I was able to just pick up the stars that made up Orion's club.

As I've mentioned before in previous blog posts, the Winter Circle consists of seven bright stars in six separate constellations: Capella (Constellation Auriga the Charioteer), Pullox & Castor (Constellation Gemini the Twins), Procyon (Constellation Canis Minor "The Lesser Dog"), Sirius (Constellation Canis Major "The Greater Dog"), Rigel (Constellation Orion the Hunter), and Aldebaran (Constellation Taurus the Bull).

All but one of the Winter Circle stars are 1st-magnitude -- the brightest stars visible in our sky. Castor is a slightly fainter 2nd magnitude star. Spotting all of these stars are fairly easy if you know where to look as they are among the first to appear about an hour after sunset.

Well folks I hope y'all enjoyed my first night sky photography of the new season. Have a good evening and y'all be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies.