Auriga Constellation: Facts, Myths & History


The constellations are the common things present in the space system; the Auriga constellation is also one of them.

Its rank in modern constellations is 48 among the 88 modern constellations present, its location or it is located in the northern direction of the space or sky system.

This constellation is discovered by the Ptolemy who was an astronomer of the second century.

We can watch the given constellation in the evenings of winter in the northern sides of the sky; it is one of the largest constellation present there having monster kind of shape and area.

The story about the name Auriga: In the Latin language, its name means “the charioteer” which looks pretty complex to understand, but we can understand the details of this constellation name as.

The major stars of this constellation form a shape similar to the helmet of a charioteer, so this is why this constellation gets that name.

Space occupied and structure:

The Auriga is 21st biggest constellation in the night sky region that occupies almost 657 square degrees.

Means that the structure of this constellation is huge and its stars may be much brighter than the other constellation because of its large shape and volume.

It is located in the very first quadrant of northern hemisphere SQ1 side so the effeteness of this constellation will be much visible in the northern side of the sky.

The family of Auriga constellation:

Like every constellation the given constellation also has some of the stars as in the form of their family, most of them are much brighter and large.

It includes the constellations like Cetus, Triangulum, and Lacerta; most of the stars of this constellation present a great brightness.

The remaining stars are Andromeda Cassiopeia and Cepheus as well.

Objects related:

This constellation relates contains three major objects of the space system that are so much important and given as M36, M37 and M38 having eight stars who are much brighter with the known planets.

The brightest star in them is Capella who seems to be like a shower spreading brightness.

Mythologies related to this constellation:

Like the every other constellation this Auriga Constellation also has some of the tales or myths which are much frequent and not so much known for the readers. There are several mythologies given below:

Chinese mythology:

According to the Chinese mythology of space, the Auriga stars were divided into further several constellations, including chariot kingdom but this constellation is usually depicted as charioteer according to the Latin myths.

Erichthonius myth:

Another myth related to the Auriga constellation according to which Auriga is known as the Erichthonius, king of Athens was raised by the goddess Athena who give him a lot of lessons and made his skills much stronger than before.

In the other myth, this constellation represents the same God who made the chariot for his benefit of travelling without any disturbance present in his path, but this myth is not considered as much great as the others.