It’s between Gemini to west and Lion to east. Once, in the caldea philosophy, they believe that in a zone of heaven occuped by Cancer existed an obscure zone from which fell down the souls to enter into the bodies. According to Greeks and Romans, “the Crab” is a minor fatigue of the second labour of Hercules. During the struggie aganist Hidra, Hera, the enemy of Hercules, sent a crab on the earth to kill the hero, but he crushes it under his foot. To rewardes the crab, Hera made him to climb up to the sky, between Gemini and Lion. His name is also “Crawfish” because the sun, about 2000 years ago, reached in this costellation the highes point of the horizon, on 21 of June, solstice of summer, and from then it started to go bach just as a crawfish.

The Constalletion of Taurus, the Bull

Taurus, the bull, is marked by a V-shaped pattern of stars that outlines the bull's face. Bright red Aldebaran, the "eye" of the bull, stands at one point of the V. This pattern is part of a cluster of stars called the Hyades — the second-closest star cluster to Earth. It consists of several hundred stars that lie about 130 light-years away. Aldebaran outshines all the other stars that outline the bull's face. But Aldebaran isn't a member of the Hyades cluster — it just lies in the same direction. It's about 70 light-years away, half as far as the stars of the Hyades. Aldebaran is a red-giant — an old, bloated star that's used up most of its nuclear fuel. It's much larger and much brighter than our own middle-aged Sun.

The Constalletion of Scorpius, the Scorpion

Three bright stars form the "head" of Scorpius, the celestial scorpion, while its tail curves away below it in the southern sky of summer. The brightest star in Scorpius is Antares, which is in the middle of the scorpion's curving body. This brilliant red star is one of the behemoths of our stellar neighborhood. If you placed it at the center of our own solar system, it would swallow Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, and almost reach Jupiter.

The Constalletion of Sagittarius, the Archer

Sagittarius, the archer — whose brightest stars form the shape of a teapot — slides low across the southern sky of summer. Sagittarius has drawn his bow, and his arrow is pointing at Antares, the bright red heart of Scorpius, the scorpion. The archer is avenging Orion, who was slain by the scorpion's sting. The constellation Sagittarius is one of the most interesting regions of the sky. The center of our Milky Way galaxy lies inside Sagittarius, about 26,000 light-years away. The constellation also contains several globular clusters — tightly packed collections of hundreds of thousands of stars.

The Constalletion of Leo, the Lion

The zodiacal constellation Leo, the lion, is one of a handful of constellations that really does look like its namesake. Look for Leo high in south in April and May. Leo's brightest star is blue-white Regulus, one of the brightest stars in the night sky. Regulus rises almost due east, with the body of the lion following it into the sky over the next couple of hours. Once Regulus climbs into the sky, look to its left — toward the north — for a group of stars forming a backward question mark. These stars outline Leo's head and mane. About two hours later, look low in the east for Leo's tail — a white star named Denebola — an Arabic name that, appropriately enough, means "tail of the lion."

The Constalletion of Gemini, the Twins

Gemini is easy to find as it glides high overhead in mid-winter, above and to the left of Orion. It's two brightest stars — Castor and Pollux — represent the mythological twins brothers of Helen of Troy. Many cultures have seen two humans in this star pattern — marked by two roughly parallel lines of stars capped by two of the brightest stars in our night sky. But the legend that endures is that of Castor and Pollux. Gemini's two brightest stars bear the names of the twins. Pollux is the brighter of the twins. It's an orange-giant star that's about 35 light-years from Earth. Castor consists of six stars — a cosmic sextet locked in a gravitational ballet. This crowded system lies about 50 light-years from Earth.

The Constalletion of Capricornus, the Sea-Goat

Capricornus, the sea goat, bounds low across the southern sky in late summer and fall. Like all the constellations of the zodiac, Capricornus has as many mythological tales as it has stars. Capricornus gets its name from a Greek myth that says the god Pan was transformed into a half-goat, half-fish when he dived into the Nile River to escape the giant Typhon. Capricornus looks like a large triangle of fairly bright stars. The brightest stars are side-by-side at the triangle's western tip. Farthest west is Giedi — the goat. Binoculars reveal that this is really two stars. Although the stars appear near each other, they're really separated by a thousand light-years. The closer of the two is about 115 light-years from Earth, while the other is 10 times farther. Just southeast of Giedi is Dabih — the slaughterer — a name that refers to sacrifices made by ancient Arabs when Capricornus rose at the same time as the Sun. It, too, consists of more than one star.