For such a small, not particularly bright constellation, it has one of the most complex myths represented in the sky. Aries is the Golden Fleece, and it's quest is quite a story. Here's part of it, considerably abbreviated.

While Jason was a child, his father, the king, was murdered by his uncle, who took over the thrown, and banished the boy. Years later, having been educated by the famous centaur Chiron, he returned to his kingdom, planning to retake it from his murderous uncle. Along the way he ran into Athena, disguised as a helpless old woman. Being a good Boy Scout, he helped her to cross a river, where she revealed herself, and gained her favor. (It's always good to have the gods on your side.) When he reached his kingdom, his uncle said he'd turn over the kingdom if he could just first accomplish this one little thing. Jason accepted the challenge, the nearly impossible task of stealing the famed Golden Fleece from the king of Colchis, at the far end of the Black Sea. Dear old uncle hoped his little nephew would fail.

But Jason had backers! He gathered the heroes of Greece to accompany him, Zeus' sons, Heracles (Hercules), Castor and Polydueces (Pollux), Zeus's grandson Orpheus (of musical fame), two of Poseidon's sons, two of Hermes's sons, and many others. Argos himself, with the help of Athena, built the famous ship, which Jason named Argo after the builder. I'm sure most are familiar with the story. The movie "Clash of the Titans", corny as it is, is actually fairly accurate. In summary, Jason and his friends had many adventures, and were ultimately successful.

The figure is from Johannes Hevelius's Uranographia, published in 1690. Note how East and West are reversed. He, like most others before him, drew their diagrams from God's perspective, from outside the "celestial sphere." His is one of the last major star atlases to be done this way, as they were cumbersome to actually use. Also note how it's drawn in "ecliptic" coordinates, another practice that fell out of use soon after.

The constellation Aries also marks what used to be the location of the vernal equinox. Back in Jason's day, on the first day of spring, the Sun was crossing the equator in this constellation. Now, thanks to a process call "precession", the "First Point of Aries" is now in Pisces, a fact generally ignored by astrologers, not that it matters....

Enough myth and legend, now lets get real. Frankly, besides a few double stars, Aries has little of interest to owners of small telescopes. If you've got nothing larger than 6", stop here. Read no further. Go rent the movie I mentioned and watch it instead!

For owners of 8-10" telescopes, there are two clusters of galaxies of interest. The first is a small cluster of four galaxies, NGC 678, 680, 691, 697, which virtually surround 1 Arietes, located just to the northwest of Beta Arietis.

Another small cluster of galaxies can be found about 1.25 degrees SE of mag 5.7 19 Arietis. A 10" should reveal NGC 877, 871. Two others, NGC 870 and 876 are a little fainter, and may require a larger telescope.