When the Moon moves through Gemini, its motion can easily be observed in a single night as it appears first west of Castor and Pollux, then aligns, and finally appears east of them. In doing so, an imaginary line that is relatively close to the ecliptic is drawn, a line which intersects Gemini roughly at the midpoint of the constellation, just below Castor and Pollux. Another way is to mentally draw a line from the Pleiades star cluster located in Taurus and the brightest star in Leo, Regulus. The easiest way to locate the constellation is to find its two brightest stars Castor and Pollux eastward from the familiar V-shaped asterism (the open cluster Hyades) of Taurus and the three stars of Orion's Belt ( Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka). Gemini is prominent in the winter skies of the northern Hemisphere and is visible the entire night in December–January. The Sun will move through Gemini from June 21 to July 20 through 2062. In 1990, the location of the Sun on the first day of summer moved from Gemini into Taurus, where it will remain until the 27th century AD and then move into Aries. During the first century AD, axial precession shifted it into Gemini. In classical antiquity, Cancer was the location of the Sun on the first day of summer (June 21). Gemini lies between Taurus to the west and Cancer to the east, with Auriga and Lynx to the north, Monoceros and Canis Minor to the south and Orion to the south-west. Gemini is associated with the myth of Castor and Polydeuces (also known as Pollux), collectively known as the Dioscuri. Its old astronomical symbol is (♊︎).Īn animation of the constellation Gemini (center), "the twins", shows two parallel stick figures.
Its name is Latin for twins, and it is associated with the twins Castor and Pollux in Greek mythology.
It was one of the 48 constellations described by the 2nd century AD astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. Gemini is one of the constellations of the zodiac and is located in the northern celestial hemisphere. Visible at latitudes between + 90° and − 60°.īest visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of February.
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