21 October 2020

A Fall Triangle

There are popular alignments of the stars that mark summer and winter, but not in the fall ... that is, until Thursday October 22nd when we will have a brief but impressive 'Fall Triangle' as a result of the waxing Moon passing near Jupiter and Saturn in the evening sky. To see this you will need a clear view to the south, but the three objects are easy to find and a pleasure to view all in one compact triangle. If you have binoculars the view will be even more spectacular. The day before and the day after the Moon will no longer be close enough to form the triangle. So take a minute to savor the sky on the 22nd and you won't be disappointed. 

As an added bonus, take note of the position of Jupiter and Saturn. If you pay close attention over the next two months, you will see the gap between them closing day by day. Jupiter is heading for a conjunction with Saturn that will culminate in a very close encounter in late December. Keep your eyes on the sky! 

Image courtesy Sky & Telescope. 

1 comment:

RK said...

Im my book, there is the summer triangle, the fall rectangle (basically Pegasus plus alpha And) and the winter hexagon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Hexagon). And looking for that link, I just learned about the Spring Triangle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Triangle.