On a clear winter night, the sky can look like a blanket of stars, but it isn’t a blanket — it’s a map. Constellations are the signposts to the stars, simple stick-figures that turn a random scatter of points of light into something you can recognize, remember and navigate by. Learn just a handful, and the whole winter sky begins to fall into place.
December is the ideal time to start stargazing in the Northern Hemisphere. Yes, it’s cold, but the long nights allow you to start early and give you hours of darkness, while the northern winter sky is packed with bright, easy patterns. Orion dominates in the southeast, with Taurus above and Gemini following behind, while together they form the vast Winter Circle of bright stars. High above, Cassiopeia’s crooked W and the Great Square of Pegasus mark the route to the Andromeda galaxy and the rich Milky Way fields of Perseus and Auriga.
You don’t need any equipment to get started — just patience, warm clothes and a willingness to look up for more than a few seconds. However, a pair of the best binoculars for stargazing, one of the best telescopes, or a smart telescope adds depth. They turn faint smudges into clusters, clouds and galaxies, and give you a reason to keep coming back.
With a few winter constellations under your belt, the Universe stops being abstract and becomes somewhere you can actually learn your way around. Here are the easiest constellations for beginners to spot in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter night sky.
1. Orion, the Hunter
Hidden target: M42 (Orion Nebula)
On December and January evenings, Orion rises early and dominates the southern sky by mid-evening, making him the easiest winter landmark. Look southeast for three bright stars in a short, straight line — Orion’s Belt, made from the three equidistant stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.
Above is reddish Betelgeuse, and below is blue-white Rigel. On the Rigel side of the belt stars, there’s a fuzzy patch that appears brighter when viewed slightly to its side. This is Orion’s Sword; binoculars or a small telescope aimed at its middle will reveal the Orion Nebula (M42) as a glowing cloud lit by newborn stars.
2. Taurus, the Bull
Hidden target: M45 (Pleiades)
After dark, look east, above the constellation Orion, for orange Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus. It’s set in a V-shaped cluster — the Hyades open cluster — marking the Bull’s face. Below are its horns, stretching to the stars Elnath and Tianguan.
Above Taurus is a tiny misty patch that looks like a miniature dipper — the Pleiades, also known as the “Seven Sisters” and M45. One of the easiest star clusters to see with the naked eye, through binoculars the Pleiades appear as many skywatchers see them — the night sky’s most beautiful object.
3. Gemini, the Twins
Hidden target: M35 (open cluster)
Close to Taurus and Orion, find two bright stars standing side by side — Castor and Pollux, the heads of the Twins. In December 2025 and January 2026, they are easy to find because a very bright Jupiter shines close by. From them, fainter stars form stick-figure bodies.
Aim binoculars or a small telescope near the foot of the northern twin to uncover M35, a young open cluster of gravitationally bound stars that also has the name the Shoe Buckle Cluster, according to NASA.
4. Auriga, the Charioteer
Hidden targets: M36, M37, M38 (open clusters)
High in the northeast to overhead, bright Capella blazes like a lantern in the winter sky as soon as it gets dark. The “Goat Star” marks one corner of Auriga, a roughly pentagonal constellation whose constituent stars are easy to see even from a city.
Sweep the southern area below Capella with binoculars or a small telescope, and you’ll come across M36, M37 and M38: three bright, open clusters that turn an apparently empty sky into anything but.
5. Winter Triangle asterism
Hidden target: The colors of Sirius
Constellations are a great way to learn the night sky, but so are asterisms — easily recognizable patterns of stars. Look to the southeast after dark during winter for three bright stars — reddish Betelgeuse in Orion, Procyon in Canis Minor and dazzlingly bright Sirius in Canis Major. Together, they form the large Winter Triangle.
Point binoculars or a small telescope at Sirius, and you’ll notice it flashes in a rainbow of colors. Why? It’s so very bright and so very close — just 8.6 light-years distant — that its intense starlight gets twisted by turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere, which bends starlight and makes stars twinkle. Sirius is the ultimate example.
6. Winter Hexagon
Hidden target: Jupiter
Step back and join the dazzling stars of the southern sky — Rigel in Orion, Aldebaran in Taurus, Capella in Auriga, Pollux in Gemini, Procyon in Canis Minor and Sirius in Canis Major. Together they form the huge Winter Hexagon (or Winter Circle). It’s a vast shape that takes a while to find, so take your time and repeat your star-hops again and again until you’ve memorized it. It will stay with you forever and make you look forward to winter.
As a bonus this winter, put a pair of binoculars on bright Jupiter, shining brightly near Pollux in Gemini, to see four points of light — its giant moons Ganymede, Europa, Callisto and Io.
7. Cassiopeia, the Queen
Hidden target: M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)
Look high in the north for a crooked “W” or “M” of five stars — the constellation Cassiopeia. It circles the North Star all night — more or less opposite the Big Dipper — and stays prominent through winter, making it a handy signpost from any site.
From the central V of the W, sweep outward toward the south with binoculars or a small telescope to find M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. This spiral galaxy, 2.5 million light-years distant, appears as a soft, elongated glow, though the darker the site you stargaze from, the brighter it will look.
8. Ursa Major, the Great Bear
Hidden target: Mizar and Alcor (double star)
In late December evenings, the Big Dipper portion of Ursa Major sits low in the north-northeast, climbing higher after midnight. Look for a bright saucepan shape — three stars in the handle and four in the bowl. Mizar, the middle star in the handle, looks slightly fuzzy to the naked eye.
If you have great eyesight, you may even notice that there are actually two stars. To check that your eyes don’t deceive you, aim any pair of binoculars or a small telescope and you’ll split Mizar and Alcor cleanly into two distinct points of light. Called the “Horse and Rider” by stargazers, splitting Mizar and Alcor with the naked eye was a test of eyesight used by the ancient Arabs, according to Space.com.
9. Great Square of Pegasus
Hidden target: Saturn
On early winter evenings, look west for a large, almost empty square of four medium-bright stars — Markab, Scheat, Algenib and Alpheratz — which form the vast Great Square of Pegasus. It’s sinking by late December, but still visible in the first half of the night.
In December 2025 and January 2026, it’s above something else that’s worth your attention — Saturn. Its pale golden light isn’t much to look at with the naked eye, but its fabulous rings can be seen with a small 3-inch telescope at 50x magnification.
10. Perseus, the Hero
Hidden target: Double Cluster (NGC 869 and NGC 884)
Look between Cassiopeia in the north and Capella in the northeast for a ragged, curved chain of stars — the constellation Perseus. It runs through the pale band of the winter Milky Way at this time of year and contains many riches.
One of these is the Double Cluster, NGC 869 and NGC 884, a faint, fuzzy patch halfway between Perseus and Cassiopeia that’s just about visible to the naked eye in a very dark sky. These two overlapping swarms of stars look terrific in binoculars or a small telescope.
