Hi, I'm Shannon Silverman, astrophysicist at the Clay Center.

And welcome to Almost Heavens.

Here in West Virginia, we're just about halfway between the North Pole and the equator.

This means we are in the perfect spot to view everything that the northern skies have to offer.

And even a little of the southern skies to the summer night sky can be a little bit of a challenge to navigate.

But once you're familiar with it, there are many beautiful constellations to be seen.

We're going to start with one that most everyone knows and is easily visible through the early and mid-summer.

The Big Dipper the Big Dipper isn't really a constellation itself.

It's an asterism, kind of an unofficial constellation, but it's part of a constellation called Ursa major.

The Big Dipper appears as an asterism all over the world, and it's a great place to begin navigating the summer sky.

The tail, or handle of the Big Dipper makes an arc which points toward a bright orange star called Arcturus.

It's easy to remember arc to Arcturus.

Arcturus is the brightest star of the Northern Hemisphere, and the base of a constellatio called by Bootes the herdsman.

It forms an elongate diamond like shape to the left and a little above but Bootes is a somewhat faint but distinctive, not quite perfect square which forms the cente of the constellation Hercules.

Like Ursa major the rest of this constellation can be difficult to see, bu it is similar in size to bootes continuing in the same direction up into the left.

There should be a bright star that stands out from everything else.

This is Vega, the second brightest star in the Northern hemisphere.

It's part of a small constellation called Lyra, named after a musical instrument called a lyre from Vega and Lyra.

You can mov to several other constellations as it forms one corner of the asterism called the Summer Triangle.

If you take Vega to be at the bottom of Lyra, look to the right of Lyra and you'll see another bright star not far away.

This is Deneb in the constellation Cygnus.

The Swan.

Deneb is another corner of the Summer Triangle If Vega and Deneb make u the base of the Summer Triangle.

Look in the opposite direction of the Big Dipper for another bright star that forms the point of the triangle.

This star is Altair, part of the constellation Aquila or the Eagle.

Vega, Deneb, and Altair are the three corners of the Summer Triangle.

And as long as you can find this asterism, you can find many other constellations in the summer night sky.

Thank you for joining.

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Until next time.