Ask A Scientist© Astronomy Archive

Question: What is a winter hexagon?  My physics teacher said it was some 
kind of constellation that occurs in the winter time, but he was not very 
specific.
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I had heard of the Summer Triangle but never of the Winter 
Hexagon.  But sure enough, it exists.  There is a brief article about it (more 
particularly, about planetary nebulae within its confines) in the March 1988 
issue of Astronomy magazine.  (An astronomy book I looked at referred to a 
"great loop" of stars.)  The Hexagon, says the article, is formed by the 
brightest stars of Canis Major, Orion, Taurus, Auriga, Gemini, and Canis 
Minor.  Thus, the stars are Sirius, Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Pollux, and 
Procyon.  
Ronald Winther
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