This month look for the star, Capella, the lucida (or brightest star) of Auriga, The Charioteer. Capella is known by another name to astronomers, Alpha Aurigae. If you were born in 1974, then Capella is your birthday star this year. That’s because the light of Capella that you see tonight left the star 42 years ago. The name Capella comes from the Latin for Little She-goat, a reference to the fact that Auriga is depicted holding young goats in drawings of the constellation. The goats, or kids are the three stars forming a narrow triangle very close and just south of the star Capella.
Capella, which the sixth brightest star in the heavens, is really two large yellow giant stars in orbit around each other. Their distance apart of 60 millions miles means they’re too close together to see as separate stars except under the best circumstances. For comparison, their distance apart is slightly closer than the distance between Venus and the sun. Millions of years ago, the yellow stars of Capella were probably as white and bright as Sirius is now. The stars of Capella are old enough that one is fusing helium in its core and the other will soon begin fusing helium. These stars are ten time more massive than the sun and 50 and 80 times brighter.
Capella is located high in the northwest and to the left of the bowl of the Big Dipper in March.
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