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Ephemeris: 10/05/2026 – Finding and observing Cassiopeia over the year
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, October 5th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 30 minutes, setting at 7:15, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:47. The Moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 3:02 tomorrow morning.
High in the northeastern sky at 9:00 PM the constellation of Cassiopeia the queen can be spotted. Its stars make a letter W in the sky. For anyone located north of 34º north latitude it is circumpolar, meaning that it never sets, as it appears to move around the North Pole of the sky. In the summer it is a W low in the north. It becomes kind of an open and angular number 3 in the autumn. In the winter it is overhead and looks like an M. In springtime it looks like the Greek capital letter Sigma in the northwest. I will visit Cassiopeia later this autumn and relate her story and other autumn constellations including her daughter Andromeda, husband King Cepheus, future son-in-law Perseus, his horse Pegasus, and the sea monster, Cetus.
The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.
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