Most people only see two bright stars in the constellation Gemini Castor and Pollux, also known as the Gemini twins. These two celebrities aren’t identical twins. The hue of Pollux is brighter and more golden. Castor is a tad lighter and whiter. However, both stars are bright, and their proximity on the sky’s dome makes them stand out. People have imagined they looked like brother stars since the dawn of mankind.
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Best viewing for this constellation
The months of January, February, and March are ideal for stargazing. At nightfall, Gemini is high in the east. Gemini reaches its peak point in the sky about 10 p.m. local time in early February. Around 9 p.m. in late February, the constellation is at its brightest. That is local time, or the time on your clock, regardless of where you are on the planet.
Until approximately May, Gemini is visible in the evening sky. Gemini lies low in the west at nightfall by late May and early June, and Gemini’s two brightest stars, Castor and Pollux, vanish into the sunset before the June 21 summer solstice. From roughly June 21 to July 20, the sun passes in front of Gemini once a year.
Myths and lore
Castor and Pollux were the offspring of a mortal mother, Leda, according to legend. Castor, the human son of Tyndareus, and Pollux, the immortal son of Zeus, were brothers. Castor and Pollux were joyously connected in soul, but their lives were torn apart by circumstance. When Castor was killed in battle, Pollux was heartbroken and implored Zeus to free him from his immortality chains. Pollux and Castor are reunited in the sky to this day, a testament to the redeeming power of sibling love, as Zeus accepted his request.
As a result, the Greek tale of Castor and Pollux explores the inherited duality of life, the eternal intertwining of death and immortality.
Here’s how to find Gemini from constellation Orion
If you look into the night sky in February, there’s a strong chance you’ll see the constellation Orion the Hunter. Orion is high in the south on February evenings in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Belt stars of Orion are a short, straight row of three medium-bright stars. Rigel, an extremely bright blue-white star, may be found below Orion’s Belt. Do you see it? Look above Orion’s Belt for Betelgeuse, a reddish star. Do you see what I mean? Castor and Pollux can be found by drawing an imaginary line from Rigel through Betelgeuse. Keep in mind that you’ll want to look for two bright stars that are obviously close together.
Here’s how to find constellation Gemini using the Big Dipper
The Big Dipper is an asterism, or a pattern of stars in the shape of a dipper. It is not a genuine constellation. On the sky’s dome, the Big Dipper is always pointed northward. Draw an imaginary line from the star Megrez to the star Merak diagonally through the bowl of the Big Dipper. You’re heading in the opposite direction of the Big Dipper’s handle. Castor and Pollux will be indicated by this line.
You can also use the moon to find Gemini.
Every month, the moon swings full circle through the zodiac constellations, passing through Gemini for a few days. Check EarthSky Tonight for posts showing the moon near Castor and Pollux on specific days, especially in the months of January, February, and March. The next time it happens will be on April 18 and 19, 2021.
Play around with Stellarium, an online planetarium application. It can tell you when the moon is in Gemini each month (except during those months when Gemini is behind the sun).
Spotting Sirius when Gemini is high in the sky
Gemini and Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, reach their greatest peaks in the sky around the same time. The brightest stars in Gemini, Castor and Pollux, are practically overhead in middle latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, while Sirius shines low in our southern sky. The opposite is true south of the equator: Sirius glows brightly while Gemini hangs low in the northern sky.
Bottom line: The greatest seasons to gaze for the constellation Gemini in the night sky are during the winter and spring. The brightest stars in Gemini, Castor and Pollux, are twin brothers from Greek and Roman mythology.
When does Gemini appear?
Gemini is a northern constellation dominated by Castor and Pollux, the two brightest stars. It is visible throughout the northern winter months, peaking around New Year’s Eve at midnight.
The galactic plane and the ecliptic line both pass through this region of the sky: just after the June solstice, the Sun crosses the boundary from Taurus and remains in Gemini until late July.
The name ‘Gemini’ is Latin meaning twins and refers to the Greek gods Castor and Pollux.
Their mother was Leda, but their fathers were different. Castor was the son of Tyndareus, the Spartan ruler, while Pollux was Zeus’ son.
Castor was killed in a family fight with his cousins, but Pollux was an immortal demigod, according to tradition. Following his brother’s death, Zeus offered Pollux the option of sharing his immortality with him, and the two were flung into the sky for all eternity.
What does the constellation Gemini look like in the sky?
Stargazers can find Gemini’s feet in the Milky Way on moonless evenings or in areas with little light pollution. Pollux (yellow-orange) and Castor (bluish-white), the twins’ brightest stars, designate their heads. They are only 5 degrees apart, making them an excellent celestial yardstick. In the 1940s and 1950s, a popular speaker at New York’s Hayden Planetarium named Henry Neely would point to Pollux and Castor, then down to a third bright star named Alhena, which represents one of Gemini’s feet. Neely would connect these three stars with the “Wedge of Gemini,” a much easier pattern for modern stargazers to find. “Somehow or another, the ancient stargazers managed to detect in these stars the shapes of two heroes standing close together,” Neely would tell his audience.
“However,” he continued, “it is futile for us to attempt to reproduce this feat of visualization.”
Even still, it’s not as dismal as Neely would have us believe. H.A. Rey transforms Gemini into a convincing framework in his classic book “The Stars – A New Way to See Them” (Houghton Mifflin Co., 1952), in which he depicts the Twins as two matchstick men holding hands. After its publication in 1952, Rey’s novel became highly successful. He also lived in New York, and I wondered if he ever attempted to meet Neely in person to correct him.
When is Gemini visible in the Northern Hemisphere?
Gemini, the Twins, is visible from November to April in the Northern Hemisphere and from December to March in the Southern Hemisphere.
What are the characteristics of Geminis?
What are the characteristics of Geminis? People born under the sign of Gemini are intellectual and have expressive looks. Their movements are usually fast and energetic. Because they’re a patchwork of multiple selves sewn together to form a coherent identity, their eyes are usually always two different colors.
Gemini is how many light years away?
Many intriguing stars can be found in Gemini’s constellation, but the stars Pollux and Castor, with Pollux being the brightest, dominate the constellation.
Pollux
With an apparent magnitude of 1.14, Pollux, also known as Beta Geminorum, is the 18th brightest star in the night sky and the brightest in Gemini.
Pollux is an orange-hued evolved giant star that is the closest massive star to our Sun, at only 33.78 light-years away from our Solar System.
Pollux has 191 percent the mass of our Sun, has a radius of 906 percent that of our Sun, and is 32.7 times brighter. Pollux is actually cooler than our Sun, with temperatures of roughly 4,586 K, despite its great exploits.
Since 1943, the spectra of Pollux has been used to classify other stars as one of the stable anchor points. Pollux b, a verified exoplanet orbiting the massive star, was discovered in 2006.
Pollux b has a mass of approximately 2.3 times that of Jupiter. It takes 590 days to orbit the massive star. Pollux and Castor have been associated with many things throughout history, including Yin and Yang, two gazelles, two-kid goats, the founding brothers of Rome, Romulus and Regulus, and so on.
Pollux is the sole star from Gemini among the 58 stars chosen for celestial navigation. The winter asterism known as the Winter Circle or Winter Hexagon includes Pollux, Capella, Aldebaran, Sirius, and Procyon.
Castor
Castor, commonly known as Alpha Geminorum, is the second-brightest star in the constellation Gemini, located 51 light-years from Earth. The apparent magnitude of Castor is 1.93.
Castor is a multi-star system with approximately six members confirmed. Two A-class main-sequence stars with red dwarf partners are the most notable.
Alpha Geminorum Aa has roughly 276 percent of our Sun’s mass, 240 of its radius, and temperatures of around 10,286 K, making it twice as hot as our Sun. Alpha Geminurom Ba is the system’s biggest star, with a mass of 298 percent that of our Sun, a radius of 330 percent that of our Sun, and surface temperatures of 8,842 K.
Alhena
Alhena, also known as Gamma Geminorum, is a blue evolving star that is the third brightest star in the constellation Gemini and is about 109 light-years away.
Alhena is 123 times brighter than our Sun, with an apparent magnitude of 1.9. This star’s hydrogen reserves have run out, and it has entered the subgiant stage.
Alhena contains 281 percent of the mass of our Sun, 330 percent of its radius, and is extremely hot, with surface average temperatures of 9,260 K.
Wasat
Wasat, also known as Delta Geminorum, is a triple star system in Gemini that consists of a subgiant star, a colder K-type companion, and a third star that has yet to be resolved.
Wasat has a combined visual magnitude of +3.53, with the central star containing 157 percent of the mass of our Sun and temperatures of roughly 6,900 K. Wasat is approximately 60.5 light-years distant.
Mebsuta
Mebsuta, also known as Epsilon Geminorum, is a yellow supergiant star around 840 light-years from Earth. It has a magnitude of +3.06 on the apparent scale.
Mebsuta is truly massive, with a mass of roughly 1,920 percent that of our Sun, a radius of 14,000 percent that of our Sun, and a brightness of 8,500 times that of our Sun.
Mekbuda
Mekbuda, also known as Zeta Geminorum, is a brilliant classical Cepheid variable star with an apparent magnitude of 3.93 and a period of 10.148 days, fluctuating from 3.68 to 4.16.
Mekbuda is approximately 1,120 light-years away from Earth. This star is roughly 770 percent the mass of our Sun, has a radius of 6,524 percent that of our Sun, and is 2,900 times brighter overall.
Propus
Propus, also known as Eta Geminorum, is a triple star system in the constellation Gemini that is about 700 light-years away from Earth. The apparent magnitude of this system is 3.15.
Propus Aa, the primary star, is a highly developed cool brilliant star with roughly 250 percent the mass of our Sun, a radius of 31,400 percent that of our Sun, and a brightness of 12,823 times that of our Sun.
Tejat
With an apparent magnitude of 2.857, Tejat, also known as Mu Geminorum, is the fourth brightest star in Gemini. This massive star is roughly 230 light-years away from us.
Tejat is 1,148 times brighter than our Sun, with 210 percent of its mass, 8,000 percent of its radius, and 210 percent of its mass. The star is cooler than our Sun due to its size, with temperatures of roughly 3,460 K.
Kappa Geminorum
Kappa Geminorum is a binary star system in the constellation Gemini, around 141 light-years from Earth. The primary star is a 3.568 magnitude star, whereas the secondary star is an eight magnitude star.
Kappa Geminorum has a mass of roughly 207 percent that of our Sun, a radius of 1,100 percent that of our Sun, and is 67.6 times brighter. Its spectra has served as one of the steady reference points for classifying other stars since 1943.
Nu Geminorum
Nu Geminorum is a binary and potentially multiple star system in the constellation Gemini, approximately 540 light-years distant. It has a magnitude of 4.16 on the apparent scale.
Nu Geminorum Aa, the parent star, has around 640 percent the mass of our Sun, is 1,1380 times brighter, and nearly three times as hot, at temperatures of around 14,100 K. Nu Geminorum Ab is currently unknown save for the fact that it has a mass of roughly 460 percent that of our Sun.
Geminorum
38 Geminorum, also known as e Geminorum, is a Gemini binary star whose primary star, A, is roughly 96 light-years away and B is around 97.9 light-years away.
A has an apparent magnitude of 4.75, while B has an apparent magnitude of 7.80. The primary star is an A-type main-sequence star with a mass of roughly 155 percent that of our Sun, as well as a chemically unusual star.
The secondary star is a G-type main-sequence star that is 89 percent smaller than our Sun in mass and radius.
U Geminorum
U Geminorum is a binary star system in which a white dwarf orbits a red dwarf very tightly. A dwarf nova is the typical example.
U Geminorum is around 304.5 light-years away from us, with an apparent magnitude of 8.2 for the primary component and 14.9 for the secondary.
Because the two components orbit each other every 4 hours and 11 minutes, their brightness varies owing to eclipses. The largest component is the white dwarf, which has 120 percent of the mass of our Sun but only 0.008 of its radius. However, it is 5 times hotter than our Sun, with temperatures of roughly 29,200 K.
The companion red dwarf is also much smaller than our Sun, with only 42% of its mass and a radius of roughly 43% of our Sun’s.
Where do I look for Gemini and Orion?
During the first few months of the year, the two brightest stars in Orion (a constellation that resembles a large hour glass) and the two brightest stars in Canis Major and Canis Minor (the “dog” stars) that follow Orion are the easiest to find. Then, around the same distance from the two brightest stars in Orion as the separation between the two brightest stars in Orion, travel northeast. After Capella and a few other stars, Pollux will be among the brightest stars in the sky. Castor and Pollux are then roughly two fingers apart at arm’s length from each other. Following the discovery of these two stars, the rest of the constellation forms a rectangle pointing toward Orion. One intriguing fact is that the two stars that make up Castor and Pollux’s heads, fittingly named Castor and Pollux, have extremely distinct characteristics. Pollux has been getting brighter and brighter for the last thousand years and is now the brightest star in the constellation. Castor is a complex star system made up of six different stars, while Pollux has been getting brighter and brighter for the last thousand years and is now the brightest star in the constellation.
Is there a difference between the two types of Geminis?
Geminis with Mercury in Taurus, Geminis with Mercury in Cancer, and Geminis with Mercury in Gemini are the three sorts of Gemini Suns. Furthermore, Gemini Mercury is either in the morning phase, evening phase, or combust for Geminis with Gemini Mercury.
People sometimes speak about how different May Geminis are from June Cancers. Not all Geminis born in May have Taurus Mercury, and not all Geminis born in June have Cancer Mercury! Mercury is never more than 28 degrees from the Sun, so a May Gemini Mercury is more likely to be a Taurus Mercury, and a June Gemini Mercury is more likely to be a Cancer Mercury.
Gemini with Taurus Mercury: Brick Wall
Since Taurus Mercury is regulated by Venus, how Taurus Mercury manifests will be heavily influenced by Venus’s position, but one thing I’ve found about Geminis with Taurus Mercury is that they often feel as if they’re fighting an immovable brick wall.
Gemini with Taurus Mercury often feels completely misunderstood. When they were younger, it seemed as if their families communicated with them through something other than words, such as money or food. This teaches Gemini with Taurus Mercury to communicate by giving or taking instead of talking.
As a result, Gemini with Taurus Mercury frequently feels powerless to influence others’ decisions. Gemini is a sign of adaptability. Because Gemini with Taurus Mercury realizes that changing others is difficult, they become changeable as a result. Gemini with Taurus Mercury is always protesting against something, although their comments aren’t always as firm as they appear. They may argue vehemently for something, just to alter their thoughts the next moment. It’s less about making a point and more about reenacting times when they didn’t understand something.
Gemini with Gemini Mercury: Caught by choice
There are three types of Geminis with Gemini Mercury: morning star Geminis, evening star Geminis, and Geminis with Mercury combust.
When Mercury in Gemini is combust, it might cause someone to do one thing while loudly proclaiming how much they wish to be doing the other. It’s difficult to say which choice they prefer because they are unsure of themselves.
Gemini Mercury does this not because they want to be dishonest, but because they have been forced to make decisions in order to influence their behavior. Control was achieved by choice. This causes individuals to stress about whether they are making the correct or wrong decision, but the idea is not to make a decision that someone else is forcing you to make. It’s about taking a step back and making your own decisions.
Geminis with Gemini Mercury in the morning star phase will usually assume responsibility for making the proper decision and will blame themselves if they make the wrong one. Because they are afraid of losing control, Geminis with Gemini Mercury in the evening star phase may respond very emotionally to what they regard as other people making poor choices.
Gemini with Cancer Mercury: Whisperer
Cancerian Geminis Mercuries have a lot of experience disputing with people who are emotionally important to them. They’ve argued in the past using “I feel” statements rather than “I think” statements.
The dread of being misunderstood is at the heart of Gemini’s emotional reactions while Mercury is in Cancer. They’re frightened that someone may mistake them for being manufactured rather than genuine. They’re especially terrified of altering their thoughts because they’re afraid that the friends who backed them up when they were traveling in one direction will abandon them when they start moving in the opposite direction. They’re afraid of being labeled as flighty if they make changes.
Cancerian Geminis Mercuries are also the Geminis, who know everything there is to know about everything. Not all Geminis are like this. Mercury in Taurus Geminis are known for being overly forthright, and Mercury in Gemini is no exception. Geminis aren’t always good at establishing enough trust to get people to reveal their true feelings. Cancer Mercury Geminis are the kind of people who have enough private discussions to know more than they let on.
However, Cancer Mercury Geminis do not always reveal their secrets. They genuinely care about others, and in doing so, they will only reveal a secret if they believe it will benefit the individual whose secret has been revealed in some way. Cancer Mercury Geminis aren’t always good at setting boundaries, but they’ll never do anything that demonstrates a lack of concern for others.
What is the Gemini God’s name?
Athena is a goddess who represents many things, including wisdom, courage, inspiration, mathematics, strength, strategy, and so on. Some claim she emerged from Zeus’ forehead after he had a severe headache, which would explain why Gemini is such a mentally active zodiac sign. This goddess, like Gemini, is an intellectual chameleon. Those born under this sign are tireless thinkers who also happen to be quite intelligent.
