Eridanus the River is a large slinky constellation that continues far below our south Canadian horizon. In fact, the alpha star named Achernar shining as bright as Procyon at magnitude 0.5 is located at declination -57 degrees. This long stretch of celestial landscape is listed as the 6th largest in the sky and is well-populated with many galaxies.

Ranked as the seventeenth and twenty-third brightest stars, the guideposts to the Twins of Gemini are now located high in the night sky. Their names respectively are Pollux and Castor and shine at magnitudes 1.14 and 1.57. Pollux is a giant orange star that seems to have a hot outer corona like out Sun.  It does possess a fainter companion too close to be resolved by an amateur telescope. Although it is brighter than Castor Bayer for some reason gave the designation of alpha (the brightest) to Castor. With a good telescope, three of Castor’s stars can be resolved; however, these are really three double stars giving us a total of six suns that appear as one to the unaided eye.