Look two or three fists right of Diphda and there's 1st-magnitude Fomalhaut, the Mouth of the Fish: the Alpha star of the Southern Fish, Piscis Austrinus. Almost halfway between them is fainter Iota Ceti, magnitude 3.5. This is Diphda (Beta Ceti), the Frog Star. Look below it by almost two fists for a 2nd-magnitude orange point. ■ Jupiter lights the southeast after dark. Clocks fall back an hour to standard time. Sunday morning for most of North America. How accurately can you time this event? Sextant not required. ■ Around 10 p.m., depending on where you live, zero-magnitude Capella rises exactly as high in the northeast as zero-magnitude Vega has sunk in the west-northwest. Jupiter is actually 40 times larger in diameter than the Moon, and it's currently 1,650 times farther away.
The Moon shines with Jupiter Friday night the 4th, but looks are deceiving. Consider, as you look, that each of those four is roughly the size of our own Moon so much closer in the foreground. They're both prime targets for small telescopes! Most scopes will usually show at least the tan North and South Equatorial Belts on Jupiter's dazzling whiteness, and of course its own four big moons on either side of it (except when one of them is hidden behind Jupiter, passing in front of it, or eclipsed in its shadow). They're only about 2° to 4° apart at the times of evening in the Americas. ■ The waxing gibbous Moon shines with Jupiter this evening, as shown below.
