I did not pay much attention to constellations before but was always intrigued by the night sky especially when I got to my hometown up in the western Himalayas. The night sky here is almost as beautiful as the day sky. On a clear night, you can distinctly see thousands of stars sprinkled across the midnight blue fabric and the expansive Milky Way all with your naked eyes which is a lot difficult to witness in a city as opposed to the countryside because of all the light pollution and skyglow.
On one such night on the fifth of March, I spotted Canis Major — visible in the northern sky in winters with the brightest star Sirius; Orion — with the three-star belt; Taurus the Bull — with V-shaped Hyades cluster; The Pleiades star cluster, and Ursa Major (Big Dipper or Great Bear) going counterclockwise from the South. I wish to spot the Ursa Minor and the Polaris at its tail/head but could not because of the gigantic mountains towards the North.
Reminds me of a Ghalib’s sher from the ghazal sab kahan kuch laala-o-gul mein . . .
thiiñ banāt-un-nāsh-e-gardūñ din ko parde meñ nihāñ
shab ko un ke jī meñ kyā aa.ī ki uryāñ ho ga.iiñ
थीं बनात-उन-नाश-ए-गर्दुं दिन को पर्दे में निहाँ
शब को उन के जी में क्या आई कि उर्यां हो गईं
– Mirza Ghalib
Here’s is an interactive night sky map to muse.
ShySnail 