Without a doubt, one of the strangest constellations in the winter heavens is Auriga, the chariot driver with goats on his shoulder. I would have liked to been at the party when they dreamed up that constellation. Libations must have been aplenty at that bash!

Auriga is part of my favorite group of constellations that

I call "Orion and his gang," perched above the mighty Hunter's head. That places Auriga very high in the southeast Pennsylvania sky, almost overhead. The constellation resembles a giant lopsided pentagon with the bright star Capella at one of the corners.

How you can make this lopsided pentagon into a

chariot driver hauling a mama goat with her baby kid goats takes a very good imagination. Most constellations don't look like what they are supposed to be because they were just visual tools to pass on stories and legends from generation to generation.

Way back then, there weren't many books, and DVD players were a few years off, so pictures in the stars were used to pass on all the stories. People would see a formation or group of stars that approximately matched the character of a particular story and then named that constellation after the character. Different civilizations would have different characters and constellations. The Greeks named Auriga,

but in this case I think they went to extremes.

According to one of the Greek legends, there once was a mighty king named Oenomaus who was a ruler of a mighty kingdom. He had a beautiful daughter Hippodameia who had many suitors who wished to marry her. King Oenomaus didn't wish for his daughter to be married to any of them and in fact wanted them all killed.

Nice guy! Now the king was an excellent chariot racer and arranged chariot races with all the suitors. The deal was this. The first suitor to beat him in a race would win the hand of his daughter, but if he lost the race he would be killed. Well, since Oenomaus had the fastest horses in the land, he routinely out raced the young lads and slayed the suitors one by one.

There was only one suitor left, Pelops, son of Hermes, the messenger of the gods. When his turn came to chariot race for the hand of Hippodameia, he got some extra divine help from the other gods. They provided a chariot that would sprout golden wings to insure victory.Pelops didn't stop there, though; he paid off Oenomaus's chariot driver, Myrtilus, to betray the king. Myrtilus was to replace the lynchpins of the king's chariot with copies made of wax. In return for his betrayal, Pelops promised half the kingdom to Myrtilus after the king lost the race and was killed.When the race began, Oenomaus was able to keep up with Pelops. But, right on schedule, the golden wings popped out of the crooked suitor's chariot. The king was left in a cloud of dust. Oenomaus ordered Myrtilus to force the horses to go faster, but he had other plans. The once faithful student ejected out of the chariot just before it self destructed. Oenomaus was then dragged to his death cursing the name of Myrtilus.Pelops proceeded to marry Hippodamia and lived happily ever after with the queen of the kingdom. Myrtilus was happy for the new couple, but he still wanted his half of the kingdom. A deal was a deal! He confronted Pelops, demanding his share, but crooked as he was, Pelops stalled him, claiming that his lawyers were drawing up all the papers and it would be ready in a few days.Myrtilus was satisfied with this explanation and went walking off. Just as he did, Pelops, with his inherited godly powers, kicked Myrtilus so hard that he went flying in the heavens and magically became the constellation we know today as Auriga.No one knows exactly how the betraying chariot driver got the mama goat and baby goats on his shoulder, but the leading theory is that they were added on by shepherds as they watched their flocks by night.Again, look for Auriga the charioteer-turned-goat farmer nearly overhead above the constellation Orion. The bright star Capella is where the mama goat is. See if you can spot the dim triangle of stars that make the baby goats right next to Capella.If you're celestial goat watching in the sky tonight, check out the nearby waxing gibbous moon nestled between the bright Pleiades Cluster — otherwise known as the "Seven Little Sisters" — and fairly bright reddish star that's actually the planet Mars. On Monday, the moon will be a little bigger and will be just to the left of Pleiades.Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and author of the new book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com