Visualize looking from our Milky Way galaxy’s flat star-rich disk, into intergalactic space.

Maybe you’ve been watching for them already. A nominal peak of the shower is November 4 and 5, and the North and South Taurids are overlapping now.

Every year, the Big Dipper (Great Bear) descends to its lowest point in the sky on November evenings.

At mid-northern latitudes, Arcturus sets about 2 hours after sunset around Halloween, at the same point on the horizon as the summer sun. It’s a Halloween ghost of the summer sun and an echo of long summer afternoons.

The Andromeda galaxy is the closest big galaxy to our Milky Way. Here are a couple of different ways to find it. Just be sure your sky is dark!

As it orbits Earth once a month, the moon is up during the day half the time, pale against the blue sky. You can see it this weekend, if you look.

This beloved Summer Triangle star is shifting westward in our sky. Its transit at nightfall in mid-October is a hallmark of the year, marking a shift toward winter – or summer – on your half of the globe.

On October evenings, look for brilliant Arcturus in the west, flashing in colors. Follow the curve in the Big Dipper’s handle to this yellow-orange star.

Watch for this eerie light about 2 hours before sunrise in the Northern Hemisphere. From the Southern Hemisphere, watch for it after sunset.

The Draconid shower will likely produce its greatest number of meteors on the evening of October 8 (not after midnight). Try the nights before and after, too.

Out before dawn? Look for Sirius, a brilliant beauty of a star. You’ll always know it’s Sirius if you see Orion’s Belt pointing to it.

When you look up on a starry evening, you might think you’re looking across the universe. In fact, all the stars we see with the unaided eye belong to our Milky Way galaxy.

Fomalhaut is a bright star – visible from all but far-northern latitudes – located in a region of the sky that contains only very faint stars. So it appears solitary in the night sky.

At an equinox, and for several days before and after, the midday sun is straight up at noon seen from Earth’s equator. At this equinox, the sun is crossing the celestial equator, moving from north to south.

You’ll find Orion and the bright star Sirius up before dawn now. They’ll be shifting into the evening sky as the months pass.