Your Night Sky for Oct. 21, 2020

Bright Star Capella

Tonight the moon visits just to the south of Jupiter and Saturn.  The first quarter moon is Oct. 23, and the second full moon this month is on the 31st for Halloween!   Oct. 27 the moon passes just south of Neptune.  Uranus is in the east to the SW of big bright Mars, which obviously is in the ESE.  Then the moon visits Mars Oct. 28, 29, and 30.


Capella is the sixth brightest star in our sky, and is highly visible in the dark morning high up in the NE.  In the evening it’s the brightest star low in the NE, so you have to be able to see that part of the sky without mountains blocking that area.  Unfortunately I have big mountains close to our house in the NE, so we can’t see it in the evening.


When Capella is low in the sky, its light shines through Earth’s atmosphere before it reaches our eyes.  Our atmosphere splits or refracts the star light making it flash.  That makes Capella twinkle red and green, and makes it flash low in our sky.  That is supposed to make it wonderful to observe. Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to see that.


It’s actually two bright golden yellow stars that are bigger and brighter than our Sun.  Capella is in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer.  Since Capella is so bright, it makes the flashing very active.
Auriga lies in the Milky Way between Gemini and Perseus. It has seven stars and is highly visible in the winter.  Because it sits in the Milky Way, it’s full of interesting objects.  Obviously Capella is its Alpha Star.  I’ll tell you more about it this winter when it’s easily visible.


If you look for Capella in the morning before the Sun brightens our sky, you’ll also see the Big Dipper in the NE.  At that time it stands vertical in the sky and points down.  I always get up while the sky is still dark, and enjoy looking out the windows at the sky.  Venus is still highly visible in the ESE in the morning, and its fun to look at.  The thin moon is now close to it, but won’t be by the time you read this.