This image shows the Coathanger — a pattern of 10 stars that really does resemble a coat hanger. It’s in the constellation Vulpecula, the fox. For decades, astronomers thought those stars formed a cluster. But studies in recent decades found that none of the stars are related — they just happen to line up in the same direction. The Coathanger is a great target for binoculars. Sweep them from the bright star Altair, which is low in the east at nightfall, toward even brighter Vega, far to its upper left. The Coathanger is about a third of the way along that line. [Petr Novák/Wikipedia]
Find out more in our radio program entitled The Coathanger.