Celestial Bow

The brightest stars of Sagittarius form the outline of a teapot, with the handle to the left and the spout to the right. To ancient eyes, though, the constellation was a centaur holding a bow and arrow. It’s tough to pick out the centaur, but the bow is easy. It is traced by an arc of three stars in the teapot: Kaus Borealis, Kaus Media, and Kaus Australis -- names that mean the northern, middle, and southern points of the bow. This diagram shows the constellation at around 10 p.m. local time in mid-August. The Moon stands to the upper left of the teapot on August 15.