Cepheus

Well, the breakthrough came from a rather unassuming type of star known as a Cepheid variable.

It's named after the constellation Cepheus, where an early one was spotted.

Okay.

A Cepheid variable.

Tonight, we turn to the man standing quietly beside her.

Cepheus is a much dimmer constellation, a modest little house-shaped pattern just northwest of Cassiopeia.

While she grabs all the attention, he tends to disappear into the background, which is rather fitting because that's more or less what he does in the myth as well.

He was there for every step of the disaster.

That's a different kind of tragedy.

Cassiopeia's story is about pride.

Cepheus' story is about duty, about a king trying to save his kingdom, making the choices everyone around him insisted were necessary, and discovering that doing what you're told doesn't always lead to the right outcome.

You can spend a long time debating whether he was a wise ruler trapped by impossible circumstances or simply a father who should have said no.

But perigee is, uh, at its closest point, and, uh, so maybe it looks a little bit bigger on that night.

And, uh, Beta Cephei is a nice, uh, colorful star to take a look at on that evening.

Have you looked at Beta Cephei before, Shane?

I think I have.

Um, but I'd have to check my notes.

You kind of have to think about where the sun is opposite in the sky.

I think maybe some software would be, uh, usable for that.

Uh, three Cephei is another colorful double there.

So, um, fingers crossed we do get some clear skies, but if not, batten down your telescopes

[laughs] Um, so there's also an interesting constellation, uh, that is, uh, quite well-placed, uh, a- around the, this time of year, and that's the constellation of Cepheus, which you always describe as looking like a, a sort of child's drawing of a house

Uh, yes, it does.

It's a square with a, um, a triangular roof, basically

It's a beauty.

The, the color is very, very obvious, uh, through a telescope or binoculars, so, um, yeah, look that one up.

Okay, um, so we mentioned the Milky Way earlier on, and the Milky Way flows through Cepheus and into Cassiopeia, the seated queen.

Um, they are- King and queen, actually, linked together in mythology, and both of them occupy an area of the sky close to the zenith at this time of year, so this is a good time to scan them for deep sky objects.

Magnitude 3.2.

If you're looking at, like, sort of that house of Cepheus, it's sort of, uh, you know, there's, like, that top triangle, and it's the bottom right of the top triangle.

Not too far away from NGC 723, which is the Iris Nebula.

There you go.

We'll also take a look at one of the brighter asteroids in the sky, two October meteor showers, and for our lunar feature of the month, we'll visit one of the moon's most distinctive craters.

Then we'll explore the constellation Cepheus the King.

I'm Wayne Zuhl, and this is the Astro Guy Podcast.

As usual, you can find the companion observing guide for this episode at astroguypod.com.

It's definitely worth returning to on several consecutive nights just to watch how much the view changes as the sun rises over the lunar surface.

Now let's leave the moon behind and turn our attention much farther out into the autumn sky.

For this month's deep sky tour, we're heading to Cepheus the King.

Cepheus is a circumpolar constellation for many northern observers, which means it never completely sets.