While much of the sky offers daunting challenges to backyard astronomers, the northern fall sky includes familiar stars and star patterns that will make even the most causal stargazer feel comfortable.

Your Tour Guide Maps and images made with the new version of Starry Night Pro software. Click to enlarge Easy-to-find stars in the nothern sky this week mapped at 9 p.m. from mid-northern latitudes. Constellations in the north, as seen at the same time of night. Printable all-sky map gives an overview of the fall sky.

We ended yesterdays tour of the western sky at the handle of the Big Dipper, so lets begin there. Three bright stars -- Alkaid, Mizar and Alioth -- form the handle, off toward the northwest and somewhat low on the horizon in late evening.

The Dipper itself is not a constellation, but it resides in one called Ursa Major (the Great Bear). Ancient cultures saw the Big Dippers star pattern as a bear with a long tail. The idea of a large ladle in the sky appears to be a modern American invention. [More about Big Dipper lore]

In the Dipper, Alioth is the brightest star, shining at magnitude 1.75 on a scale that measures the apparent brightness of objects. The lower the number, the brighter the object. The brightest stars are zero or first magnitude. Negative numbers are reserved for the most brilliant objects: the brightest star is Sirius (-1.4); the full Moon is -12.7; the Sun is -26.7. The faintest stars visible under dark skies are around +6.

Even under bright city lights you should be able to spot Alioth and its fellow Big Dipper stars. The next brightest is Dubhe, at magnitude 1.78.

Another familiar name in the northern sky is Polaris, the North Star. To find it, locate the Big Dipper star called Merak, at the bottom right of the bowl. Draw a line from Merak up through Dubhe and continue it up into the sky. Stretch your arm out full length and measure about three fist-widths. There, just to the right of your line, is Polaris.

Polaris is a moderately bright star. It is called the North Star because the North Pole of Earths axis of rotation points up toward it. For this reason, Polaris remains relatively fixed in the sky during the night, and Earths spin causes the other stars to rotate around Polaris.

Polaris is also the outermost star on the handle of the Little Dipper, which seems to pour into the Big Dipper. The stars of the Little Dipper are dimmer, but under reasonably dark skies youll see them stretched out to the left of Polaris. Another moderately bright star, Kochab, serves as the outer lip of the Little Dippers bowl. [More about the Little Dipper]

Theres another easy-to-spot star pattern in the northern sky. Off to the right of Polaris and slightly higher are five stars that form a W, called Cassiopeia. This time of year, the W is on its side in the evening. [The Fall Sky Tour will focus on the region around Cassiopeia Tuesday, Oct. 8]

Finally, off to the northeast and very low to the horizon at dusk is the brightest star in the northern sky, Capella, which shines at magnitude 0.06. Capella is the sixth brightest star in the entire sky. It resides in the constellation Auriga, the Charioteer.

If you have the opportunity to go outside twice during the night, you can use some of the stars discussed here to observe the skys apparent counterclockwise motion around the North Star.

Use the map on this page around 8 p.m. to locate Polaris. Find the Big Dipper, which before 9 p.m. will be slightly higher than shown on the map. Capella will be skimming the horizon (in fact youll need a clear view of the horizon to find it before 9 p.m.).

Go out a couple hours later, say at 10 or 11 p.m., and youll find Polaris in the same spot. The Big Dipper will have dipped lower toward the horizon and scooted to the right. Capella will have drifted higher and to the right.

By midnight, the Big Dipper is directly underneath Polaris and hard to find along the horizon. Capella is high in the sky, at roughly the same elevation as Polaris and off to the right. By dawn, the Big Dipper has moved up and to the right, into the position Capella held during the evening hours.

Capella is now above Polaris.

In fact, Capella is almost directly overhead just before dawn, near the imaginary point in the sky called the zenith. In that region of the sky, Capella finds a rival for the brightest "star." This bright planet Saturn (magnitude zero right now) is not visible in the early evening sky. It rises in the east well after 10 p.m. and is best viewed during morning hours. But well talk about that tomorrow, when our Fall Sky Tour continues with a look at Easy Targets in the Eastern Sky.

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About Your Tour Guide Starry Night software maps the sky from your location. In this video, learn what one noted astronomer thinks of it.

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