Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Thursday, October 27th.  The sun will rise at 8:13.  It’ll be up for 10 hours and 25 minutes, setting at 6:39.   The moon, 1 day past new, will set at 7:02 this evening.

A bright star called Capella has slowly been rising in the northeastern sky in the evenings for the past few months.  At 9 p.m. now it is low in the north northeast far below the letter “W” shaped constellation of Cassiopeia.  This winter Capella will be overhead the highest of winter’s seven brilliant first magnitude stars.  Capella never quite sets for anyone north of Ludington.  Due to its brightness, and being the closest first magnitude star to the pole Capella appears to move slowly as the earth rotates, and spends summer and autumn evenings close to the horizon.  In the sky Capella represents a mamma goat held on the shoulders of a charioteer.  There’s a thin triangle of three stars to Capella’s lower right.  It’s a group of stars called the Kids.  Her kids.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Capella and the Kids in the early evening. Created using Stellarium.