Background:
Cetus, the whale, is a large constellation visible in the early Summer for its southern hemisphere observers. South Africans will find it at their zeniths in December in the early evenings. Cetus was known to the ancient Greeks as the beast that was about to attack Andromeda when her rescuer Perseus arrived. Cetus contains the most famous variable star in the sky, Omicron Ceti (Mira). Its minimum and maximum brightness spans over 11 months. It is hardly visible during minimum brightness, but becomes quite visible during maximum brightness. It can lead to confusion when faint when you use a skymap to connect the stars.

Where is it?
Cetus is situated in a rather dark area of the sky containing few bright deep sky objects. It lies "above" Pisces as seen from South Africa and is bordered by Taurus and Eridanus.

Finding it:
The most prominent feature of Cetus is its pentagon-shaped group of stars. When you can locate this group of stars, it is much easier to fill in the rest of the constellation. Either work your way up from Aries when using a skymap, or jump from Taurus's head upwards to the west. Beta Ceti, one of the brighter stars in its region, can be a landmark star for galaxy searchers.