Now that we’re a month into astronomical autumn, the best autumn constellations are putting on quite a show in the evening sky. Pegasus the Winged Horse is pulling Andromeda the Princess in the eastern sky.

Now if you insist on the traditional interpretation of this constellation you would allegedly see Pegasus as an upside down flying horse with no visible wings and tiny legs, no problem!

I could take you outside and with my green laser pointer attempt to show it to you that way, but I guarantee you would be heavily underwhelmed!

What many stargazers (including myself) like to do is taking the same stars and making Pegasus into a right-side-up, majestic flying horse with a huge wing span, rescuing lovely Princess Andromeda from a giant ravenous sea monster. That’s how I show it at all of my star parties, and people love it that way.

I don’t have a problem with rearranging Pegasus as long as I don’t invade the territory of other constellations. After all, is there really such a thing as the correct interpretation of constellation pictures? And besides, my version of Pegasus resembles the flying red horse logo you see at Mobile Gas stations.

To see the flying horse of the Butler heavens, the first thing you need to do is find four moderately bright stars that make a nearly perfect square in the high early evening eastern sky.

It’s actually known as the “Great Square of Pegasus” that outlines the torso of the airborne horse.

This time of year the square is actually diagonally orientated and is often referred to as the autumn diamond. The stars in the big square/diamond are easy to spot because they are the brightest stars in that part of the sky.

The highest star at the top corner of the square is the star Scheat, pronounced she-at. Don’t say the name of that star too fast around the children!

Scheat is the base of the horse’s neck. Look just above and a little to the right of Scheat for two other stars that outline the rest of the neck and another fairly faint star to the lower right of the neck that marks the flying horse’s nose.

The horse has a multi-jointed magical front leg that extends upward in a curved line.

To see it, start at Markab, on the right corner of the square of Pegasus. From there, look for a curved line of slightly fainter stars that extends up to the upper right of Markab. The modestly brighter star at the hoof of Pegasus is called Enif.

I love the name of the star on the left corner of the square of Pegasus. It’s called Alpheratz, pronounced Al-fee-rats. You can’t help but see a curved line of three bright stars extending to the left of Alpheratz.

You are looking at a sideways view of the mighty wings of Pegasus. If you look above that bright line of stars you’ll see another curved line of fainter stars. That outlines Andromeda the Princess, who is hitching a ride on the rear end of the horse.

How the lovely princess found herself tied to a flying horse’s rear end is part of the great Greek mythological story involving Perseus, Cassiopeia, Pegasus and the lovely Princess Andromeda.

Perseus, son of Zeus, the king of the gods, was flying back from a mission when he flew over a distressing scene. A giant ugly sea monster named Cetus was closing in on a beach where Princess Andromeda was chained to a rock.

Her own parents, Cassiopeia and Cepheus, the king and queen of ancient Ethiopia, left her chained to that rock as a sacrificial offering to save their kingdom from total destruction. Perseus had to save this damsel in distress, but he had to be smart about it.

It just so happened that Zeus had sent Perseus off on a mission to lop off the head of Medusa, a terrible monster that was so ugly that anyone who looked its way was turned to stone. It had snakes instead of hair growing out of its head!

Perseus had to prevent the entire countryside from being stoned. Using the borrowed magic shield of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, Perseus whacked off the head of the monster without becoming stoned himself. Perseus was quick on his winged feet and just as Cetus the sea monster was about to make a quick lunch out of Princess Andromeda, Perseus whipped out the head of Medusa and shook it at Cetus, and that’s all it took to turn the monster into a giant boulder that sank back into the sea like a cheap boat anchor!

This story gets even weirder. Blood from the severed head of Medusa hit the ocean waves, magically producing Pegasus, a beautiful white winged horse that instinctively flew down to the boulder where Andromeda was, chewed off the chains and then flew the Princess up to Perseus where it was love at first sight.

Perseus and Andromeda were soon married in an elaborate royal wedding.

Was it happily ever after for the new couple? Not quite. A few years after the wedding, Perseus found himself at the wrong end of a sword in a drunken brawl. Not exactly a happy ending. Enjoy the big rescue horse of the heavens!