Aries Constellation

Aries is the Ram of the zodiac, a small huddle of faint stars in the northern sky that carries an outsized legend: in Greek mythology it represents the ram with the golden fleece, the one that carried Phrixus to safety and whose coat later sent Jason and the Argonauts on their famous quest. It is not a showy constellation — you will not find a blaze of first-magnitude stars here — but its curved line of three modest stars, Hamal, Sheratan, and Mesarthim, has been recognized as a ram since Babylonian times, and it opens the zodiac as the traditional "first sign" of the astrological year.

Aries at a Glance

• AbbreviationAri
• Genitive FormArietis
• MeaningThe Ram
• Constellation FamilyZodiac
• Area441 sq. degrees (39th largest of 88)
• Right Ascension1h 46m – 3h 30m
• Declination+10.4° to +31.2°
• Brightest StarHamal (magnitude 2.00)
• Best Evening ViewingDecember, visible 90°N to 60°S
• Sun's Actual TransitApril 18 – May 13 (astrology: March 21 – April 19)

Mythology and History

Aries has represented a ram for roughly three thousand years, though the figure the stars traced changed with the culture looking up at them: late Babylonian astronomers saw a farmhand before the ram took hold, while other traditions have read the same stars as a pair of inspectors or even a porpoise. The Greek version is the one that stuck in the West — the ram whose golden fleece Phrixus offered to Zeus in gratitude for being carried out of danger, and which the god later placed among the stars. Ptolemy catalogued Aries among his 48 constellations in the 2nd century AD, and it has marked the start of the zodiac ever since, even though the vernal equinox it once hosted has since drifted into neighboring Pisces due to the slow wobble of Earth's axis known as precession.

Notable Stars in Aries

None of Aries's stars are particularly brilliant, which is part of why the constellation is easy to overlook despite its fame. Hamal, an orange giant about 66 light-years from Earth, is the brightest at magnitude 2.00 and marks the ram's head; its Arabic name simply means "the sheep." Sheratan, a blue-white star around 60 light-years away, and Mesarthim, a well-matched pair of white stars discovered to be a double star in 1664, complete the short, recognizable arc that has anchored the constellation since antiquity.

Deep-Sky Objects

Aries is not a rich hunting ground for deep-sky observers — it has no Messier objects — but amateur astronomers with larger telescopes sometimes track down NGC 772, a loosely wound spiral galaxy roughly 130 million light-years distant, or the tight double star Mesarthim itself, which splits cleanly into two matched white suns even in a modest telescope.

• NGC 772 — a loosely wound spiral galaxy about 130 million light-years away, faint but a favorite target for astrophotographers

Neighboring Constellations and How to Find It

Aries sits between Pisces to the west and Taurus to the east, and is easiest to find by first locating the much brighter Pleiades cluster in Taurus and scanning back toward the horizon. It climbs highest in the evening sky around December, when its short, curved line of three stars is visible from nearly everywhere north of 60°S. Aries borders Perseus, Triangulum, Pisces, Cetus, and Taurus.

Aries is also associated with the Autumn Arietids, May Arietids, and Delta Arietids meteor showers, visible to observers who track where these annual displays radiate from.