Event Date: July 6th
Time: 5:00 AM
Brief
I talked about Capella for much of the spring, before it disappeared into the glare of the Sun. Even a week or two before that happened, it was already visible in the morning. Capella is a favorite star among pro and amateur viewers, because of its brightness: it flashes orange-ish red and green when high enough above the horizon yet still affected by atmospheric pollution. When seen at its lowest in the sky from latitudes north of about 49º (the western US/Canadian border), it is seen a solid, light red. Although the software doesn't let me show these fancy changes of color as a result of light refraction, I can still show Capella at an altitude that also lets us see the other stars making up its parent constellation: Auriga.
Here is Capella and Auriga labeled below, with Venus, Jupiter and the Taurus star clusters seen to the right (south-southeast) of it.
Time: 5:00 AM
Brief
I talked about Capella for much of the spring, before it disappeared into the glare of the Sun. Even a week or two before that happened, it was already visible in the morning. Capella is a favorite star among pro and amateur viewers, because of its brightness: it flashes orange-ish red and green when high enough above the horizon yet still affected by atmospheric pollution. When seen at its lowest in the sky from latitudes north of about 49º (the western US/Canadian border), it is seen a solid, light red. Although the software doesn't let me show these fancy changes of color as a result of light refraction, I can still show Capella at an altitude that also lets us see the other stars making up its parent constellation: Auriga.
Here is Capella and Auriga labeled below, with Venus, Jupiter and the Taurus star clusters seen to the right (south-southeast) of it.
Detailed
At a declination halfway between the north celestial pole and equator, it is one of a few bright, recognizable stars which can be seen for a small number of weeks during both the morning and evening of a day; Vega and Deneb are two others, although the latter is dimmer than both Vega and Capella. Many other stars in constellations such as Perseus and Hercules have stars that also can be seen after Sunset and before Sunrise. These constellations and their stars are not circumpolar as seen from our latitude, yet far enough north for this to happen.
As mentioned earlier in the year, there is a star, El Nath, that makes up the stick figure of Auriga, yet not part of the constellation any longer. Refer to what I said about that here. As a result, I didn't label El Nath, belonging to Taurus only. As for the Charioteer, which Auriga represents as a man holding a goat, they are not alone in this section of the sky: looking carefully when zoomed in for the following image, where there are three dim stars (labeled) next to diamond-shaped Auriga. They form an acute angle. This asterism is called the Kids (i.e. young goats, not young children!) With a goat as part of the Auriga constellation, this is very fitting, as the stars are dimmer in comparison to the four that make up the Charioteer's stick figure.
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| click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp. |
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