The path the sun takes crosses through the Aries constellation region of the sky. In the northern hemisphere it can only be seen in the Autumn months. I find the easiest way to find Aries is to first find the Pleiades To me, Aries just looks like a curved line but you know you're in the right place when you spot the three brightest stars that make up the Ram's head.
Hamal is an orange giant star located around 66 light-years away from Earth. It has an apparent magnitude of just 2.0 which makes it easy to see with the naked eye. Hamal belongs to the spectral class K2 III meaning it is an orange giant star. It is estimated to have a radius of 10 times our sun and 50 times more luminous. In ancient times Hamal was associated with the vernal equinox which marked the beginning of spring.
Sheratan is also a bright star that can easily be seen with the naked eye with a magnitude of 2.70. It sits about 59 light years away and is classified as a A5V star meaning it is relatively hot with a white or bluish appearance. It is a binary star system with its companion star approximately 26 astronomical units away.
Gamma Arietis has an apparent magnitude of 4.8 but is still visible. Also known as Mesarthim, it is a binary star system with an orbital period of 318 years. The primary star is classified as K0III making it a K-type giant star.
41 Arietis sits at the other end of the constellation at the tail of the ram. This is a triple star system with the A and B stars forming a close binary pair and the C star orbiting at the distance. The apparent brightness of A and B are 6.33 and 6.45 respectively and they have an orbital period of 24.67 years. They are both A type main sequence stars meaning they are relatively hot with a blue/white coloring. The system as a whole is a whopping 600 light years away.
Sitting 100 million light years away, NGC 772 is an unbarred spiral galaxy. Its asymmetric spiral arms originate directly from the galaxy's central nucleus and show stunning variations in brightness and structure. There are several star-forming regions within it's arms which show as bright spots in images. NGC 772 also falls into the category of a peculiar galaxy which has the very scientific meaning of being oddly shaped. In more zoomed out images you can see that one arm of this galaxy sticks out and is sort of elongated. This is thought to be due to gravitational interactions with nearby smaller galaxies.
NGC 972 is a spiral galaxy located about 50 million light years away with an apparent magnitude of 12.1. The bright glowing regions come from the intense light of newly formed stars interacting with hydrogen gas. It is studied by astronomers to better learn how these types of galaxies evolve over time.
NGC 1156 is a irregular dwaf galaxy that is nearby at 25 million light years away and has a13,000 light year diameter. This galaxy is also known for having many regions of intense star formation while its core is densely made of older red stars. Officially classified as isolated, this galaxy remains uninfluenced by neighboring gravitational pulls of nearby galaxies. However, there are some pockets of gas that rotate in the opposite direction as the rest of the galaxy meaning it may have interacted with another galaxy in its past.
The Babylonians were known for dividing the ecliptic into 12 sections to keep track of time and seasons. The Vernal equinox to us, is when the length of day is equal to the length of night, but to the Babylonians marked the beginning of the agricultural season. In 1000 BC the tablet MUL.APIN was created listing the major constellations important to that time. This is when Aries officially appears but it was likely known well before the tablet existed. To the earlier Babylonians, Aries was not yet a Ram but a farm laborer or "agrarian" which again shows how this constellation was closely related to the growing season. It wasn't until the 7th century BCE that the symbol switched to a Ram for reasons yet to be known.
Amon-Ra was often depicted with the head of a ram and the body of a man, and represented fertility and creativity.
Like with the other zodiac constellations, Aries made its way from the Babylonians into Greek and Roman culture. In Greek mythology Aries is the god of War. He earned his constellation by saving Phrixus and Helle when their step mother, Ino, set in place an elaborate plan to kill them. Her plan was to create famine in their land of Boetia and she forged a message from the oracle of Delphi that said to sacrifice one of the twins to save the land. Just as their father was about to kill Phrixus on top of mount Laphystium, Hermes sent the golden Ram to save them. Unfortunately Helle fell off of Aries back along the way and drowned but Phrixus safely made it to the land of Colchis.
Aries was one of the 48 constellations catalogued buy Ptolemy in the 2nd century in his book the Almagest. From there the IAU picked it up and made it one of the official constellations.

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