Pegasus the Flying Horse rises in October sky | Looking Up

If you've never seen a flying horse, take a look for it the next clear autumn night.

It's not a literal winged equine, but the figment of the wonderful imagination of ancient astronomers who created a constellation honoring Pegasus the Winged Horse from Greek mythology.

The astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd Century A.D., listed Pegasus among his 48-star patterns, and is one of the 88 official constellations recognized today.

On mid-to-late October evenings, Pegasus is riding high in the eastern sky. Depending on how the stars are connected together on one's star map, Pegasus is flying nose first. His wings are very impressive, made up of four stars that are together nicknamed the "Great Square."

The "nose" star is one of my favorites. But of course, that is a tough call as there are many, many stars I look forward to seeing again each season as the next group of constellations returns to the evening sky, as the Earth merrily orbits the Sun.

This star is known as Enif, or Epsilon Pegasi. The distinct color of many stars is always an attraction, and Enif's deep orange shade is clearly seen in binoculars. It might remind us of the glorious fall foliage October brings in northern latitudes.

More Looking Up:Jupiter blazes bright in the Pocono night sky this October

The star is the brightest one in Pegasus, around magnitude 2.4. It varies slightly. Classified as an orange supergiant star with a radius around 211 times that of the Sun, the star's light takes about 690 years to reach us.

In my imagination anyway, Pegasus seems to be playing ball, bouncing it off his nose. Only 4.2 degrees north-northwest from Enif is the bright globular cluster M15. On a very dark night best seen away from town, you may be able to find M15 with just your eyes. (The front stars of the Big Dipper's "bowl" are about five degrees.)

The 6.2 magnitude cluster stands out brightly in binoculars, like a fuzzy star. Even a small telescope begins to resolve it into a mass of stars. Globular clusters contain hundreds of thousands of stars, packed closer together towards the middle; they orbit our Milky Way Galaxy. M15 is 33,600 light years distant.

Only three of the four stars of the Great Square are actually part of Pegasus; one, known as Alpheratz, is within the adjoining constellation Andromeda.

The Great Square, as seen from mid-northern latitudes, is oriented like a diamond it rises; Scheat is on top (also an orange star), Alpheratz at left, Algenib at bottom and Markat at right.

Pegasus is known for many remarkable galaxies, although none are easily seen in a small telescope. Stephan's Quintet appears as a compact group of five galaxies; two are clearly in the process of colliding.

One of the other galaxies, however, has been determined to be much closer leaving a quartet that actually travels space together. This one's only a "mere" 39 million light years away; the others are about 210 to 340 million light years from us.

The two galaxies meeting head-on create massive bursts of star formation and drawing off long "tails" of stars. The quintet was discovered in 1877.

Stephan's Quintet was picked as one of the five targets observed by the James Webb Space Telescope as part of the release of its first official science images this summer.

You may have seen Stephan's Quintet in the opening scene on the 1946 film, It's a Wonderful Life. They are depicted as angels.

Last quarter Moon is on October 17 and new Moon is on the 25th. Keep looking up at the stars!