Time to track down a faint gem of the northern skies. Nestled between the bright constellations of Cygnus, the swan, and the mythical mother-daughter pair of Cassiopeia and Andromeda, Lacerta, the lizard, is admittedly a faint constellation.
However, picking out its distinctive shape on a cold, dark night brings a tremendous sense of accomplishment at knowing the night sky.
Lacerta was named in the 17th century by the Polish-German astronomer Johannes Hevelius. In constructing his star chart, he endeavoured to fill in any large gaps between the bright constellations that had been known since antiquity.
The chart shows the view looking high into the southern sky from London at 19:30 GMT on 27 October, although the view will remain essentially the same all week. Even though Lacerta contains no really bright stars, it does trace a distinctive zigzag shape that is reminiscent of a lizard crawling across the sky.
To see the constellation will require a dark sky, well away from street lights, but as an added bonus, such a sky will show Cygnus and the autumn Milky Way extremely well. Being a northern constellation, Lacerta does not rise high in the southern sky. Hugging the northern horizon, it is a real challenge to see.
