![]() ![]() ■ As autumn advances, the Great Square of Pegasus floats ever higher after dark. See the October Sky & Telescope, page 48. The shower will be less active for a morning or two before and after. That's where the meteors will appear to be directed away from. The radiant is in Orion's Club under the feet of Gemini. The best direction to watch is your darkest direction, probably overhead. You might see 5 to 20 meteors per hour then depending on your light p0llution. The shower's origin point (radiant) will be highest in the hour before the first sign of dawn, so this is when the shower will appear most active. The pre-dawn sky is moonless Friday morning, offering a good chance to catch some meteors of the Orionid shower - debris from Halley's Comet. The main stars of Vega's own constellation, Lyra - faint at 3rd and 4th magnitude - extend to Vega's left by half as far as the distance from Vega to Eltanin. Binoculars will help through the moonlight Draco's head is about the width of a typical binocular's field of view.ĭraco always eyes Vega as they wheel around the sky. The rest of Draco's fainter, lozenge-shaped head is a little farther behind. To Vega's right or lower right by 14° (nearly a fist and a half at arm's length), look for Eltanin, the nose of Draco the Dragon. ■ Vega is the brightest star very high toward the west these evenings. See the finder charts for both with Matt's column in the October Sky & Telescope, page 43. This cluster is about half as distant, some 2,600 light-years out. But the cup's stars are mostly 9th or 10th magnitude, so a telescope at low power may be in order. "To me," writes Matt Wedel, "the stars at the cluster's center look like a cup or chalice, with fainter lights glittering within." The cup is open to the north and 0.2° across its top. NGC 225 is 7th mag but friendlier in my opinion. The cluster's brightest points are only 9th magnitude, so expect just a very subtle, diffuse glow even in a dark sky. ![]() It's centered ¼° north of a 6th-magnitude star, the fainter star of two in line with Beta and Gamma. It's magnitude 6.5 in total but loosely scattered across about ¼° of sky. NCG 129 is nearly halfway from Beta to Gamma Cas. Two you may never have tried for are NGC 129 and NGC 225, hardly more than 2° apart near Cassiopeia's W pattern. Some of them are pick-uppable in good binoculars, with care and effort, in this dark-of-the-Moon week. ■ Cassiopeia has clusters! Lots of open clusters. Much higher above you'll find bright Capella. The Moon rises around midnight in dim Cancer. ![]() Mars glares at magnitude –0.9, Beta Tauri above it is mag 1.6, and Zeta Tauri is much closer below Mars at mag 3.0. Look east once Mars is well up, around about 10 or 11 pm. ■ Tonight Mars shines right on the line between the horntip stars of Taurus. The Little Dipper's two brightest stars (2nd magnitude) are Polaris, the end of its handle due north, and Kochab, the lip of its bowl about a fist and a half to Polaris's left. ■ This is the time of year when, after nightfall, Cassiopeia stands on end halfway up the northeastern sky - and when, off to its left in the north, the dim Little Dipper extends leftward from Polaris. Down from Tarazed runs the dimmer stick-figure backbone of the constellation Aquila, the Eagle. Just upper right of Altair, by a finger-width at arm's length, is little orange Tarazed. Less high in the southwest look for Altair, not quite as bright. Vega, meanwhile, is still that brightest star high in the west. Accordingly, Capricornus has replaced Sagittarius as the zodiacal constellation low in the south. ■ Now that it's mid-October, Deneb has replaced Vega as the zenith star after nightfall (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes). The Moon was full (at opposition) last Sunday, while Mars will reach opposition December 8th. ![]() Once again, the Moon and an outer planet demonstrate that they shine together on opposite sides of their opposition dates. The waning gibbous Moon, up in the east in late evening, passes bright, fiery Mars on Friday the 14th. They're both between the horntip stars of Taurus: Beta Tauri, magnitude 2, and Zeta Tauri, mag 3. By 11 they're nice and high, as shown below. Once it's up, look to its right or lower right for bright Mars. ■ The waning gibbous Moon rises after about 9 p.m. ![]()
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