Jupiter Visible in October

Abstract

Two bright planets will be visible in the October evening sky. As twilight ends you can see Jupiter in the southwest; later in the evening Jupiter sets and Saturn rises in the east. Actually, Saturn will appear above the horizon about a half hour before Jupiter sets. Saturn is shown on the accompanying maps (the one for the northern sky). They give the sky's appearance at about 11 p.m. local daylight saving time, on Oct. 1, an hour earlier on the 15th and two hours earlier on the 31st. Because Jupiter sets before these times it is not shown. When you look around the sky it doubtless seems that the arrangement of the constellations is quite helterskelter. And the names often seem farfetched. The stars of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor supposedly form figures of bears. Draco is a dragon, Cepheus and Cassiopeia a king and queen, and Andromeda a princess, chained to a rock. Cygnus is a swan, Pegasus a winged horse, Pisces a pair of fishes tied together with a ribbon and Cetus a whale. Auriga is a charioteer, Taurus a bull, and Perseus a mythological hero who rescued Andromeda, while Aquarius is a man pouring water out of a jar and into the mouth of another fish-Piscis Austrinus. These and many others, were described in the Almagest, a famous book by an Egyptian astronomer, Ptolemy, who lived in the 2nd century B.C. He listed 48 constellations, the most conspicuous ones that he could see from that part of the world. Later others were added, to fill parts of the sky that Ptolemy had left vacant. And as men explored the Southern Hemisphere they saw groups that didn't rise in northern countries. More new ones were named and now there are 88. In earlier days the constellation figures, such as a man, an animal or some object, were important. Astronomers used them to indicate particular stars or parts of the sky. Modern astronomy pays no attention to the figures. A constellation is just an area of the sky. It may retain the name of the traditional figure but it makes little difference whether or not a star group has any resemblance to what it was named after. 0 OCT. NSe