Some argue that the mighty Orion the Hunter, who’s also on the rise this month, should be the winter hero because he’s so big and bright. In Orion’s story, though, at least according to Greek and Roman mythology, there isn’t anything resembling heroic behavior. He was a hermit hunter that harassed the god Atlas’s daughters, who eventually became the stars of the Pleiades star cluster. Orion also lured Diana, the goddess of moon, into a relationship that got her into trouble with her father Zeus, the king of the gods. Zeus did away with Orion using the services of a giant scorpion, but that’s another story for another day.

Perseus is one of the few constellations that sort of resembles what it’s supposed to be. In the early evening look for the brightest star you can see in the east-northeast sky. That’s Capella, the brightest star in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer. Just above Capella look for a moderately bright formation of stars that roughly resembles a one-legged stickman. That’s our hero Perseus. This formation of stars may also remind you a bit of the scrawny Christmas tree that Charlie Brown brought to his buddies in the classic Charlie Brown Christmas special.

Everybody must get stoned

According to Greek mythology Perseus was the son of Zeus, the king of the gods of Mount Olympus. Perseus was sent on a mission to rid the land of Medusa, an incredibly ugly lady monster. As I like to say she fell out of the ugly tree and hit every stick on the way down! Medusa had a bad hair day every day, because instead of strands of hair emerging from her head she had dozens of really agitated poisonous snakes. She was so ugly that all she had to do is have you glance her way and you would immediately turn to stone! As she roamed the countryside she turned entire village populations to stone.

Something had to be done about all this stoning going on. Zeus assigned his son Perseus the task of hunting down Medusa, cutting off her snake littered head, and returning it for deposit in a local hazardous waste dump. Perseus was well armed and prepared. Along with his razor edge sword he borrowed the winged shoes of Hermes, the messenger of the gods – also known by his Roman name Mercury – so he could fly to his target. Perseus was also equipped with the magic shield of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, so he wouldn’t have to look directly at snake headed Medusa. I’m not sure how Athena’s shield worked. Somehow I couldn’t find any schematics on a Google search.

Armed with his magic tools Perseus flew off in pursuit of Medusa, and before too long tracked her down outside of Athens. Trusting Athena’s shield to precisely navigate him to Medusa’s neck, he drew his sword and with one swing lopped off the monster’s despicably ugly cranium. With super heavy-duty rubber gloves he scooped up the head, avoiding snake bites, and tossed it into an industrial strength Hefty bag for the flight home. On the way back from his successful mission he rescued Princess Andromeda from a hungry sea monster by turning the sea monster to stone using Medusa’s head.

'Demon Star'

As you can see in the diagram, the moderately bright star Algol, the second brightest star in Perseus, marks the head of Medusa. Algol is referred to as the "Demon Star" for that reason, but it’s also called that because every 2.8 days it fades by a factor of 30 percent. Algol is what’s known as an eclipsing binary star. Algol is actually two stars revolving around each other in a very tight orbit, one a little brighter than the other. When the dimmer star passes in front of the brighter star every 2.8 days Algol fades in brightness for a few hours. Maybe that’s a warning not to look at that demon star for too long. You don’t want to get stoned!

An absolute must see in the constellation Perseus is the great Perseus Double Cluster, just above the hero’s head and not all that far away from neighboring Cassiopeia. If you’re lucky enough to be stargazing in the countryside you can see it with the naked eye as a misty patch among the stars. If you have to put up with a little light pollution it’s still a wonderful target with a pair of binoculars or a small telescope. I know you’ll love it! It’s a pair of huge open star clusters made up of about 100 young stars each that were born 3 million to 6 million years ago. Believe it or not, that makes them stellar children. Both clusters are really out there at a distance of 7,000 light-years away. Because they’re 7,000 light-years away, the light that we see from them now left those clusters right around 5000 B.C.!

There’s an even brighter star cluster just off the foot of Perseus known as the Pleiades. The Pleiades are much brighter than the Perseus Double Cluster because they’re a lot closer, just over 400 light-years. If you could magically reel in the Perseus Double Cluster from 7,000 light-years to 400 light-years, about a quarter of our night sky would be dominated by the twin Perseus clusters. It would really be something to see!