Special to CosmicTribune.com, October 11, 2026

Excerpts from weekly Sky & Telescope.com report.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11

■ As October proceeds, Deneb slowly replaces Vega as the zenith star of early evening (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes). Accordingly, dim Capricornus has replaced Sagittarius as the zodiacal constellation having its best display in the south.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 12

■ Vega is the brightest star very high in the west these evenings, still almost overhead at nightfall. Less high toward the southwest is Altair, not quite as bright. Just upper right of Altair, by a finger-width at arm’s length, is little orange Tarazed. Down from Tarazed runs the dimmer stick-figure backbone of the constellation Aquila, the Eagle, alongside the spine of the Milky Way.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13

■ The Great Square of Pegasus is high in the east-southeast after dark — still, for now, almost balanced on one corner (for the world’s mid-northern latitudes). But by 10 or 11 p.m. the Square moves higher to the south and turns level like a box.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14

■ As twilight fades down, catch the crescent Moon low in the southwest. Can you make out twinkly Antares very close to its right? They’ll be about 1° or 2° apart depending on your location (in North America). See below.

And now the crescent Moon begins returning to the evening sky. It’s passing bleary-eyed, out-of-season Antares, which is on its final way down and out for the year. Bring binoculars.

Note: The Moon is drawn about three times its actual apparent size. It will be very close to 2nd-magnitude Tau Scorpii, but the star will not shine through the Moon as the scene came out here!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15

■ Cassiopeia lies astride the winter Milky Way. So it offers lots of open star clusters for telescopes, including some within range of binoculars depending on the quality of your sky. Three of my favorite Cas clusters are NGC 457 (the Owl or ET cluster, which includes 5th-magnitude Phi Cassiopeiae); M103, dominated by a tiny line of three stars 0.1° long, magnitudes 7.2, 8.2, and 7.5; and fluffier NGC 663.

In 7 x 50 binoculars NGC 457 looks to me like a subtle little windblown candleflame, being blown northwestward from its base of Phi Cas and Phi’s 7th-mag binocular companion.

The visibility of these subtle little cluster-glows will depend, of course, on your light pollution and your instrument. I have no trouble with them using 10×50 binocs under my fairly light-polluted suburban sky.

Cassiopeia is shown here with north toward the left, oriented like the naked-eye and binocular view of it when it’s getting high in the northeast on October evenings. If the three open clusters here are too faint for your conditions, just drop down by twice the length of the near-vertical segment here, and pow, there’s the Double Cluster in Perseus, much closer and brighter and a fine consolation prize.
Stars by Starry Night Pro 8.

It’s always a big help to brace your binoculars against something as still as you can. When looking high up, try lying on the ground with something next to your head to brace them against.

And you need to know exactly where to look. The view of Cassiopeia here shows the clusters’ precise locations amid the Cassiopeia W and its star fields.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16

■ As soon as the sky is fully dark, spot the thick crescent Moon low in the southwest. Tonight it’s in the Sagittarius Teapot, which is made of 2nd- and 3rd-magnitude stars. The Teapot is now steeply tilted to pour. Its triangular spout is below the Moon, and its four-star handle is to the Moon’s upper left (at the times of nightfall in North America).

■ Mars, Jupiter, and Regulus continue to draw together high in the southeast before and during early dawn. If you get up early, keep an eye on them. Mars and Jupiter will pass each other by 1.2° exactly a month from now, and then the three will bunch up most closely around November 25th.

Mars, Jupiter, and Regulus are lined up before and during early dawn this month.A better, darker view will be had 1½ hours or more before sunrise.

  October 11-16: Cassiopeia and nearby star clusters, The Sky