This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Friday, October - TopicsExpress

This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Friday, October 10, through Sunday, October 12,written by Alan French. The Moon was full early this past Wednesday, so a waning gibbous Moon will dominate the weekend’snight sky. It will reach last quarter next Wednesday. This weekend features a chance to see the bright reddish star Aldebaran, marking the eye of Taurus, the Bull, close to the Moon. If you’re not a morning person, look for the pair Saturday night. The Moon rises at 8:41 pm Saturday. By 10 pm the Moon, just over twelve degrees above the eastern horizon, will be a little over two degrees from Aldebaran, which will be to the Moon’s lower left. The distance will gradually shrink through the night as the Moon moves eastward among the stars. If you can, be sure to check out the area around with Moon with binoculars and enjoy the lovely stars of the Hyades, a large, loose, cluster, whose brighter members outlinethe face of Taurus, the Bull. If you are a morning person and are up before the Sun on Sunday morning you’ll get the see the Moon even closer to Aldebaran in the southwestern sky. At 6:00 am Aldebaran will be less than one degree to the lower left of the Moon. We’re in a period of transition. The stars of summer are gradually moving lower into the Sun’s glow in the west, and the stars of winter are rising earlier each night. By 10:00 pm bright Capella dominates the northeastern sky. Capella is the sixth brightest star in the night sky, only slightly exceeded by Vega, which we wrote about last weekend. Lying 42 light years from Earth Capella is also bright because it is in our neighborhood. It is the first magnitude star closest to Polaris. Capella is the brightest star in Auriga, the Charioteer. Look for a nice pentagon of stars below and largely to the right of Capella at 10:00 pm. These outline Auriga. The Charioteer was responsible for the King’s livestock, and star atlases often depict the figure holding young goats or kids. The small triangle of stars near Capella is called “The Kids.” Watch during the coming weeks as Capella and Auriga move higher in the sky each evening. The stars travel across the sky because the Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours, but the Earth is also traveling around the Sun. This causes the stars to rise about four minutes earlier each night. This may not seem like a big difference, but it is almost 30 minutes in a week and two hours in a month. If we have a long cloudy spell, the change in the sky can be more obvious than usual.