The Celestial Teapot
There really is a teapot in the sky.
A Real Teapot in the Stars
Deep in the constellation Sagittarius, eight bright stars form an unmistakable shape: a teapot. This asterism — an informal pattern of stars within a larger constellation — is one of the most recognisable shapes in the summer sky.
The eight stars that form the Teapot are:
Steam from the Spout
On dark, clear nights away from city lights, the Milky Way appears to rise from the spout of the Teapot like a plume of steam. This is because the Teapot points directly toward the centre of our galaxy — the densest, brightest part of the Milky Way band.
Lurking in this direction, approximately 26,000 light-years away, is Sagittarius A* — the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. It has a mass of roughly four million suns. The Teapot's spout literally points at one of the most extraordinary objects in the known universe.
When to See It
The Teapot is best viewed from June to September in the Northern Hemisphere. Look south after dark — Sagittarius sits low on the horizon from the UK, but is easier to spot from more southerly latitudes. From the Southern Hemisphere, it passes nearly overhead and is visible for much of the year.
The universe, it seems, has a sense of humour. Russell would have approved.