Cepheus, which crosses the meridian just above Polaris (the North Star) around 10 pm in October (Daylight Savings Time), is a prominent northern hemisphere constellation although it boasts of no prominent stars. Alderamin is its brightest, barely dimmer than 2nd magnitude. Cepheus represents an ancient king, the husband of Queen Cassiopeia in the Perseus mythology. In this region of the sky the Perseus myth is strongly represented by several constellations: the hero Perseus, the fair maiden Andromeda, the winged horse Pegasus, the sea monster Cetus...and Andromeda's parents Cepheus and Cassiopeia, side by side in the night sky. I probably should have inverted the above depiction of Cepheus as that is its position when it is highest in the sky. It possesses several deep-space objects although none are from the traditional Messier catalogue. According to Wikipedia, the constellation contains a very powerful quasar powered by a supermassive black hole as well as a hypergiant star, Mu Cephei, whose surface would extend beyond Jupiter's orbit were it situated in our Sun's place...
If it's not cloudy, I think I'll go out tonight and check out Cepheus. By the way, that bright "star" you see rising high in the southeast sky during the evening is really the planet Jupiter...
Next month: another constellation...
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