The Sky This Month

October 2006

All times and dates local to Victoria, BC (Pacific TIme).

Look to the east at 9 p.m. to find the "Great Square" of the constellation Pegasus, one of the highlights of the fall sky. Pegasus is a constellation made of four bright stars that form a giant square in the sky.  Attached to the star on the far left hand side of the square you might see the constellation Andromeda, shaped like the front of a canoe or maybe half of a banana. Above Andromeda and slightly to the left, or northeast, is the giant "W".  The "W" makes up the constellation Cassiopeia, the mother of Andromeda in Greek Mythology (check out the movie “Clash of the Titans” for the whole story of Andromeda).

If you make a triangle using the three stars on the right hand side of Cassiopeia and use it as an arrow, you can draw a line and point towards the constellation Andromeda. You may be able to see a small, fuzzy patch in the sky slightly to the right just you run into the canoe of Andromeda. This “fuzzy spot” is the Andromeda Galaxy, the closest large galaxy to us and the only galaxy, besides the Milky Way, that you can see with your naked eye in the Northern hemisphere. The Andromeda Galaxy is about 2 million light years away, is roughly the same size and has roughly the same number of stars as the Milky Way.  It is sometimes called our sister galaxy.

While you are looking at the constellations in the eastern sky, look just above the horizon to see a little cluster of stars (it sort of looks like a little dipper and some even call it the “other little dipper”).  This cluster of stars is called the Pleiades, an open cluster, and is one of the few clusters we can see with our eyes.  An open cluster is a group of relatively new stars that have formed in the same region of space.  Point a pair of binoculars or a small telescope at the Pleiades to reveal more hot young stars and the gas and dust surrounding them.

Look to the North to find the "Big Dipper" parallel to the horizon. High in the West, you will the bright star Vega, a bright star in the constellation Lyra.  Look to the southern horizon to see a bright blue star shining just above the horizon. This is Fomalhaut, part of the constellation Picis Austrinus.

Planets

This month only two planets will be easily visible in the evening and early morning sky.  Jupiter can be seen low in the south western sky for a short time after sun set.  Saturn rises in the north east by 2 a.m. and will be high in the sky in the south east by morning twilight.

Clear skies and happy stargazing!