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Because Sagittarius is located so low in the sky, a skygazer can only see it well where there is a clear southern horizon during the summer months. It has a very distinctive shape; some call it a teapot while to others it appears like a house with a gable roof and two small wings to the side. Despite the difficulties, Sagittarius presents to a skygazer one of the sky’s most interesting areas. As soon as Sagittarius appears during the early morning hours of the spring until it disappears for good in the autumn (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), people direct their eyes towards it, because a person looking at Sagittarius is looking at the center of the galaxy. Observing Sagittarius is like looking at a great, lighted city from one of its distant, rural suburbs. Without being able to distinguish the myriad lights, one can sense their power just from the remote glow.
At no other place in the sky is the glow of the Milky Way as strong as in the Sagittarius region. It sometimes obscures all but the brightest stars. Sagittarius is the spot in the sky most laden with “deep space” objects, which will be discussed in Chapter Eight. The deep space objects may be distant groups of stars or interstellar dust called nebulae, which are seen through binoculars as fuzzy white patches. Without going into details now, even a cursory look at Sagittarius will indicate that this is not an ordinary section of the sky.
Sagittarius the Archer was a centaur, half man and half horse, named Chiron. He is supposedly directing his arrow at nearby Scorpio. Unlike most centaurs who were violent, Chiron was good, wise and immortal. After Hercules accidentally wounded him, Zeus saw that Chiron was in great pain and let him die and then placed him in the heavens.
Sagittarius is the ninth sign of the zodiac.