The autumnal equinox, or the first day of astronomical autumn, is early this Friday at 5:04 a.m. Now that it’s almost officially autumn, what better time is there to look for that famous flying horse in the skies?

It’s the constellation Pegasus the giant winged horse, on the rise in the eastern Butler evening sky, nagging you to take a look.

Conventional interpretation and inspiration of this constellation is that of a horse flying upside down with puny little wings. I certainly don’t see it like that, and I have lots of friends in the stargazing world that see it as I do: A majestic horse with a huge wing span, rescuing lovely Princess Andromeda from a giant ravenous sea monster.

If I could take you out and show you Pegasus soaring in the eastern skies, I know you’d agree with me. As a matter of fact, I think the constellation Pegasus looks just like the flying red horse logo you see at Mobil gas stations.

As soon as it’s dark enough, look directly above the eastern horizon for a giant diamond of four fairly bright stars that outline the torso of Pegasus, otherwise known as the “Square of Pegasus.” They’re easy to spot since they are the brightest stars in that area of the sky.

The star at the top of the diamond is the star Scheat, pronounced she-at. Scheat is the base of the flying horse’s neck. Look above Scheat for the 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.

This horse would be a sure bet at any racetrack. First off, it has a multijointed front leg that extends upward in a curved line. To see it, start at Markeb, on the right hand 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 Markeb.

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 lower left of Alpheratz. You are looking at 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 hitched on to the rear end of the horse. How the lovely princess found herself tied to a flying horse’s derriere 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.

He was able to fly because Hermes, the messenger of the gods, lent him his winged shoes. Wouldn’t those be great to have if you’re a marathon runner!

A giant ugly sea monster named Cetus was closing in on a beach where 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, which is a whole other story. 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 who 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 winged shoes of Hermes and the magic shield of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, Perseus hacked off the head of the monster without turning into stone.

Perseus was quick on his winged feet, and just as Cetus the sea monster was about to make lunch out of Princess Andromeda, Perseus whipped out the head of Medusa. Our hero 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. Big drops of blood from the severed head of Medusa hit the ocean waves and magically produced 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.

Who comes up with these stories?

Anyway, 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. This whole adventure is captured in the joined constellations we see in our autumn evening skies to enjoy for eons to come!

Just above the constellation Andromeda the Princess is one of the crown jewels of sky, the Andromeda Galaxy, over two million light-years away. I’ll have more on that next week in my Skywatch column.