This month’s star chart shows the southern sky on October 20 at 6:00 AM Central Daylight Time in the MORNING.  The new moon falls on this date, so the morning sky will be quite dark the rest of the month.  (Remember:  We go off daylight saving time on October 25, so the chart will show the sky at 5:00 AM CST on or after that date.)

The two brightest stars in the sky, Sirius (mag -1.60) and Canopus (-0.90), are well placed this time of year.  Indeed, Canopus is near its maximum elevation above our horizon.  For comparison, look at Rigel (0.30), the bright blue-white star in the bottom of Orion.  Because of the quirky scale of magnitudes we inherited from the ancient Greeks, negative magnitudes are brighter than positive ones.

To find Canopus, start with Rigel.  Draw an imaginary line from Rigel to Sirius, make a right angle at Sirius, and draw a line downward to Canopus, as the star chart shows.

Because it is so low in our sky, Canopus doesn’t look as bright as it really is.  To my eye, it only looks about as bright as Rigel.  To see Canopus in all its glory, directly overhead, you would need to go a few miles farther south – somewhere near the southern tip of South America.  Bon voyage!