Technologies

A Trio of Stars: The Spring Triangle Is Visible All Spring. Here’s How to See It

The stars Arcturus, Spica and Regulus are three of the brightest in the sky.

Sometimes the stars align in fascinating ways, making stargazing extra rewarding. One such example is the Spring Triangle, formed each spring by the stars Arcturus, Spica and Regulus. This bright triangle becomes visible in late March and lingers in the sky through spring and much of summer.

This all works out because of how constellations appear to move — or more accurately, because of how the Earth moves around the Sun, which changes the constellations visible in the night sky. Arcturus, Spica and Regulus are three of the brightest stars in the sky and belong to the constellations Boötes, Virgo and Leo, respectively. As the Earth continues its orbit, these three constellations come into view together in the night sky shortly after the the spring equinox, giving the Spring Triangle its name.

That should give skygazers plenty of time to check them out, especially if they’re already out looking at something else, such as April’s Pink Moon or the series of upcoming meteor showers in 2026.

How to find the Spring Triangle

To find the Spring Triangle in the Northern Hemisphere, you’ll want to wait until around 10 p.m. local time for the stars to rise over the eastern and southern horizon. The next step is to identify the stars, and then simply envision the imaginary lines that would form the triangle.

If you have trouble finding them, you can use an app such as Star Walk on Android and iOS, or a web-based map such as Stellarium.org or Time and Date’s Sky Map. Arcturus is arguably the easiest of the three to see since it’s the fourth brightest star in the night sky. Spica and Regulus are 16th and 21st, respectively.

The triangle will streak across the southern sky over the course of the night, so if you get out later, you’ll want to look more southward than eastward. Regulus sets on the western horizon just before dawn, so if you’re an early bird, you’ll want to look toward the southwestern or western skies to see it.

A second Spring Triangle

Spica, Regulus and Arcturus make up the most well-known Spring Triangle because they are all quite bright and relatively easy to find in the night sky. But there’s a second version of the Spring Triangle that uses the star Denebola instead of Regulus as the third point in the triangle.

This trio makes the triangle closer to an equilateral triangle, so fans of symmetry may prefer this version.

The only downside is that Denebola isn’t nearly as bright as Regulus and may be a bit more difficult to spot for amateur stargazers. Denebola is in the Leo constellation, so if you can find Leo, you can find both Regulus and Denebola.

The Spring Triangle is what’s known in astronomy as an asterism. Asterisms are simply patterns in the stars that astronomers recognized and named to bring order to the giant sea of glowing balls in the sky. All constellations are asterisms, and they’re the most popular and well-known ones, such as the Big Dipper and Little Dipper. The Spring Triangle is yet another.

Per NASA, there are 88 asterisms in total, many with creative names, including the Winter Circle, Winter Triangle, Summer Triangle and the Teapot.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 29, #1022

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle No. 1,022 for Sunday, March 29.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is a fun one. You might recognize the four green group words right away. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: You might spot these while driving around.

Green group hint: Everyone boogie!

Blue group hint: Certain silent letter.

Purple group hint: Zuckerberg is one.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Images seen on the street.

Green group: Retro dance crazes.

Blue group: Silent «P.»

Purple group: ____ mark.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is images seen on the street. The four answers are graffiti, mural, poster and stencil.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is retro dance crazes. The four answers are hustle, mashed potato, robot and twist.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is silent «p.» The four answers are corps, coup, psycho and receipt.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ mark. The four answers are beauty, check, question and stretch.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 29 #756

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 756 for Saturday, March 29.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is fairly difficult. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: A bit peckish?

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Feathered friends’ food.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

FORT, FORTS, SEEN, STORE, BATE, RATE, FILE, LIFE, LIFER, TIES, FORTH, SILL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight, but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: