Twinkle Twinkle "Little" Star...
On this page, we will try to identify the brightest stars that you can see in the eastern sky at about 8:00pm for the first of the month given. As the month goes on, the stars will be a little west each night. If you keep watching, you will become familiar with these sign posts and will be able to spot the other stars in the neighborhood.
If you want more detail, you can click on this address to get any night and any hour: http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/
October 1
Fomalhaut is the bright star in the south east. It is the brightest star in a small constellation called the Southern Fish. It will appear as a lonely bright low star.
Higher and to the east, you will see a large square of stars. This is the square of Pegasus. The stars of Andromeda string out to the north east. Look for a faint fuzzy smudge of light above the second pair of stars in Andromeda. This is the great galaxy, which is over 1.5million light years away. You are looking at 1.5 million year old light when you see this.
Capella is the bright yellow star that you will see in the northeastern sky tonight. It is the brightest star in the constellation Auriga and is located in the upper left corner as you look at the constellation. You should see a small triangle of dim stars just to Capella's right. Capella is a star that has about the same surface temperature as that of the Sun. Because it is so large, however, it is about 100 times brighter than our Sun. It is about 46 light years(46X6 trillion miles) away and that is why it seems to be dimmer than old Sun.
Aldebaran is the orange tinted star that you will see to the right of Capella,almost directly east. It is 64 light years distant and is considered a red giant. Near it, you will see a "V" of stars that represents the face of Taurus the Bull. Aldebaran is the eye of that face. The Pleiades, the "Seven Sisters", is the group of young stars that you will see above Aldebaran. They are over 400 light years away.
November
On November 30th there will be the annual Packard Planetarium lunar watch. All are invited. In addition to the usual planets and other heavenly bodies, the Moon will block out Saturn while we watch. Come around 7:00 for a great show.
December 1
Betelgeuse is the bright reddish star the marks the N.E. corner of Orion the hunter. It is an irregular variable star that varies its brightness between that of Capella and Antares. Betelgeuse is a red super giant which is bigger that the orbit of Mars. If it were our sun, we would be warming ourselves inside it.
Rigel is the bright blue white star on the S.W. corner of Orion. It is about 900 light years away and is 150,000 times as bright as our sun. That is because it is so very hot.
Orion's Belt is made up of a diagonal of three stars that a close together(3 degrees). The highest star, Mintaka is on the celestial equator. These are sometimes called the "three Marias". Coming down from the middle of the three is a line of stars known as the sword. If you look closely at the lower stars in the sword you will see a faint fuzzy patch. This is the famous Orion Nebula, which is the birthplace of new stars. The two planets that were visible last month are still there,but they have shifted west.
January 1
Castor and Pollux will rise a little north of east this month. Castor will lead the way with Pollux rising about 25 minutes later. (So how far apart in degrees are Castor and Pollux?) If you look closely at the twins,you can see some indications of interesting things. Since Pollux is yellow and Castor is white, you can tell which one is hotter. Pollux can be seen to be brighter. Pollux must be closer, and is in fact 10 ly closer. See if you can detect the brightness differences. Castor is really a complex of six stars that you would need a good telescope to "split". See Jupiter and Saturn high in the middle of the sky after Sun set. Venus will be in the west.
February 1
Procyon and Sirius are the two bright stars that are in the east in February. Procyon, which means "before the dog" will rise a little before Sirius. It is 11 light years away and, therefore, it appears bright.Sirius is the brightest star that you can see during the night. It is easily found, especially since it is to the lower left of the three stars of Orion's belt. Sirius seems so bright because it is only 8 light years away. It is a double star with the larger star having a diameter of 1.5 that of our Sun. The smaller companion goes around the one that we see in about 49 years. It has a density of over 50,000 times that of water. It is so dense because it is compact, having a diameter of only three times that of Earth.
March 1
Regulus is the bright star that you see a little north of east in March. Regulus is found at the base of a "backward question mark". This beautiful star is about 8 times as far away as Sirius. That makes Regulus about 84 light years away. If we could move it to the same distance as Sirius, it would be much brighter, and quite impressive. A little later in the evening, a small triangle pointing east will rise. The star on the eastern point is the tail of the Lion, Denebola. Denebola is 43 light years away , making it half as far as Regulus. These two stars are the major points in the constellation Leo the Lion.
April 1
Arcturus is the bright yellow star that rises in Spring. It will be visible in the eastern sky this month. Arcturus is cooler than the Sun,i.e. 4000degrees C and is 40 ly away. You can be sure that you are looking at Arcturus because it is found at the end of the projection of the arc of the big dipper's handle
May 1
Spica is the bright white star that is visible to the east south east of Arcturus. It is hotter than Arcturus, but looks dimmer because it is 250 ly away. This is the bright star in Virgo.
June 1
Vega looks like a bright diamond in the night sky. It is a blue star which means that it is quite hot. Vega is 26 ly away and is in the constellation Lyra. It is the first of the summer triangle to rise.
July 1
Deneb, the swan's tail, is the bright star rising in July. This is the eastern most star of the summer triangle. The light that you see when you look at Deneb is 650 years old because it is 650 ly away. The Milky Way goes through the area and if you look closely, you can see gaps in the star field caused by dark clouds of dust in the galaxy's arm.
August 1
Altair, the southern star of the summer triangle is rising early this month. It is isolated, so it will be easy to identify. It will be the only bright star in the south east at this time. Altair is in the constellation Aquila the eagle.
September 1
Antares is the bright orange-red star that you see in the south sky at this time. It is the second largest star that you can see with the unaided eye. Its diameter is 300 times bigger than our Sun,which makes it about 300 million miles. It is classified as a red super giant. The red color tells us that it has a very cool surface temperature, about 3000 degrees C. It is about330 light years(46X6 trillion miles) away. Antares is part of a large "fish hook" constellation called Scorpius.
Sagittarius is the constellation that is in the south east. Look for a six star "milk dipper" from which the milk of the Milky Way seems to be spilling out. When you look at Sagittarius, you are looking toward the center of our own galaxy.
This information is based on Guideposts to the Stars by Leslie Peltier