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  • BBC Sky at Night

    EXPLAINER EXTRA

    Dec 17, 2020 5 minutes

    The dramatic constellations of winter

    Katrin Raynor-Evans takes a stargazing journey around the season’s favourite targets

    As the Northern Hemisphere makes a transition from autumn to winter and leaves behind the season of mists and mellow fruits, darkness continues to lengthen and the familiar sights that winter skies have to offer are welcomed with open arms, like greeting old friends. The changing of the seasons brings a changing in the constellations – slowly nudged from east to west as we continue our journey around the Sun.

    If you’re a complete beginner to constellations, you may be wondering what they are. Quite simply they are grouped patterns of stars in our night sky. For thousands of years our ancestors looked to the sky, and observed and named them after animals, objects and mythological characters. You will need a

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