Where in the night sky can I see the ‘archer’?

Answer

Now is the time to look. The Sagittarius is a southern constellation, which can only be seen reasonably well from here when it comes through the meridian, in the south. And for Sagittarius it is now: at the beginning of the night, Sagittarius is above the horizon in the South. But it’s low: the center of the galaxy is 28 degrees south of the equator, so it’s only a good ten degrees above the horizon. So rarely good to see. And the center can’t be seen anyway, it’s hidden at optical wavelengths behind the absorption of a lot of dust and gas on the line of sight to us.

But in more southern places it is really worth it. The constellation’s arguably brightest stars aren’t hugely spectacular, but the collective glow of the galaxy’s stars is absolutely spectacular. In the southern hemisphere, that area of ​​the sky is absolutely mind-blowing to look at. But the neighboring constellation Scorpio remains more spectacular. In the south of France, Scorpio and Sagittarius are already really remarkable, further south it gets better and better.

Recognizing an archer in that group of stars indeed takes the imagination of an ancient Greek. But so is it to see a bear in the Big Dipper and a queen in Cassiopeia.