All my stories are set in the Aurigan constellation. The stars I have written about are real, although the planets and the Patrol are, of course, all my own invention.
The Aurigan constellation can be found in the Northern Hemisphere near Gemini and Taurus.
Auriga is Latin for ‘charioteer’ and it was named because of its resemblance to a charioteer’s helmet. Like all constellations, you have to use your imagination here! In western astronomy, the constellation was recorded in the 2nd century by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy. (Wikipedia provides lots of information about the history of the constellation in other cultures, if you are interested in further reading.)
The brightest star in the constellation is Capella, which is the sixth brightest star in the sky and about 43 light years from Earth. Although it looks like a single star to us on Earth, it is actually four stars, two sets of binary pairs, stars which orbit around each other.
I plan to post more short pieces about the different stars in my books over the next few weeks.
However, if you would like to read more about the constellation, you can check out wikipedia or http://www.constellation-guide.com.
L.V. LLOYD 