![]() The farther north you are, the sooner and higher. How soon Capella rises, and how high you'll find it, depend on your latitude. ■ During evening, look just above the northeast horizon - far below high Cassiopeia - for bright Capella on the rise. But Leo's rise in the east at the beginning of dawn? That announces October. Leo announces spring when he's on the rise in the early-evening sky. It's the forefoot of Leo, who is already making his early-apparition dawn arrival as shown below. ■ Before and during early dawn Saturday morning October 2nd, look below the crescent Moon by about a fist at arm's length for Regulus. ![]() The Red Spot remains closer to the central meridian than to the planet's edge for 50 minutes before and after it transits. ■ Tonight Jupiter's Great Red Spot should cross Jupiter's central meridian around 9:54 p.m. For more on these stars and their surroundings, see "Capricious Capricornus" in the the October Sky & Telescope, page 45. They're oriented roughly the same way as the Alpha pair. The components of Beta are somewhat harder they're half as far apart and much more unequal. Alpha, the upper one, is a wide pair of yellow-orange giants that the smallest binoculars easily resolve. Look upper right of Saturn, by 6° or 8°, for 3rd-magnitude Alpha and Beta Capricorni. ■ Bright Jupiter and fainter Saturn continue to dominate the southeast to south these evenings, 16° apart. The main stars of Vega's own constellation, Lyra - faint by comparison - extend to Vega's opposite side by half as far as the distance from Vega to Eltanin. Draco always eyes Vega as they wheel around the sky. The rest of Draco's fainter, lozenge-shaped head is a little farther behind. Face west, crane your head up, and look to Vega's right by 14° (nearly a fist and a half at arm's length) for 2nd-magnitude Eltanin, the nose of Draco the Dragon. ■ Vega is the brightest star just west of the zenith after dark this week. Nova Cassiopeiae 2021 was back down to magnitude 7.7 as of October 3rd, and it seems to be reddening again.
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