If you step outside late Saturday night and look to the stars, you’ll see a sign of autumn rising in the east. The zodiacal constellation Taurus is low in the southeast sky. It rises near midnight. There will be no problem finding it too. The last quarter moon appears in the constellation.

Taurus is the purveyor of longer nights and shorter days that go with autumn and winter.

Even better, if you are out late, you’ll see the constellations of autumn overhead. Autumn offers a treasure of steller jewels.

The constellation Perseus, which ancient astronomers thought was the source of the Perseid meteor shower, is above Taurus. Perseus is an assembly of stars forming an elongated triangle. There is a double star cluster nearby which can be spotted readily on a moonless night. Algol, the second brightest star in Perseus is a variable star. It changes brightness over a span of less than three days. Algol in mythology is the Demon Star.

At the same time, overhead there is Pegasus, one of the largest constellations in the sky. You’ll need a star chart to plot out the four stars that form this large rectangle. Pegasus in mythology is a giant winged horse flying across the sky. For those who enjoy astronomy, Pegasus is a favorite guide to finding the much smaller constellation Andromeda, which is resident to a far distant galaxy visible to the naked eye. The Andromeda galaxy is an usual treasure, as it is the one visible galaxy we can see beyond our Milky Way, without binoculars and without a telescope.