Wading in the Celestial Sea

I have delayed discussing the "Celestial Sea" until now, to give time for all five of the constellations involved to be above the horizon at a decent time. Now that Cetus, the Whale (or sea monster, if you will) has cleared the horizon, we can begin wading in the celestial water.

The so-called "Celestial Sea" is an area of sky where the constellations all have something to do with water, all the way from a half-goat, half-fish to a sea monster.

Let's begin at about 9 p.m. MDT at your favorite dark-sky location looking mostly south.

On the right end of the line is, Capricornus, the Sea Goat, a constellation we have seen before. It is located just to the left of the Tea Pot of Sagittarius, and looks like a child's crude drawing of a boat. It is very easy to find from a dark-sky place.

I think our ancient Greek ancestors had some imagination to get a half-goat, half-fish out of that.

To the left of and above Capricornus is Aquarius, the Water Bearer. The stars of this constellation are so dim and spread out I often tell people not to bother looking for it. However, since we are here, why not?

The most obvious and notable thing to look for is four stars in the shape of the letter "Y." That is the "Water Jug" asterism and is smack in the middle of Aquarius.

For help in finding The Water Jug, first find Pegasus, the giant square to the upper left which now looks like a baseball diamond tipped up on one corner.

The lower right side of the square points almost directly at the Water Jug.

We will come back to the "Celestial Sea" next week, but let me warn you, it will be a real "fish story."

SKY WATCH: Third-quarter moon, Saturday, Oct. 22. Mars and Pluto are close tonight, Oct. 19th. Look for them in the southwest above the handle of The Tea Pot. Binocular event after 1:30 a.m. MDT Sunday, Oct. 23, the moon is close to M44, the Beehive, in Cancer.

The South Taurid meteor shower is going on from now until the end of November. They are probably best seen in late October and early November.

There is no certain date for the shower's peak and the meteors are well spaced out (5-7 per hour). However both Taurid branches--north and south are known for producing fireballs, exceptionally bright meteors that seem to explode.

The radiant (the place where the meteors seem to originate) is located about 12 degrees west of the Pleiades star cluster near the end of Taurus the Bull.

Your clenched fist held at arms' length is about 10 degrees.

Taurus is well placed for viewing above the eastern horizon by 11:00 pm MDT.

There is another shower going on at this time also, the Orinid shower may peak on the night of October 21-23 but will be washed out the bright moonlight. These meteors are remnants of Haley's Comet.

NEXT WEEK: More Celestial Sea, and more astronomical blathering.