The longest days accompany the winter solstice. In December, a day - a whole cycle of day and night - is about half a minute longer than the average 24 hours.
Mirfak is the brightest star in Perseus and is visible even from light-polluted locations. This star is a member of the Alpha Persei Moving Cluster of stars.
Many know Orion's Belt, a short straight row of 3 stars. To the Aymara, Orion's Belt is a Celestial Bridge between the sky's Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
November 3 brings the year's earliest solar noon - that is, earliest midday - by nature's clock. It's a harbinger of the Northern Hemisphere's earliest sunset.
What's the scariest star in all the heavens? Look for Algol the Demon Star on autumn evenings. It's a great choice for a driveway telescope night on Halloween.
Bruce McClure served as lead writer for EarthSky's popular Tonight pages from 2004 to 2021, when he opted for a much-deserved retirement. He's a sundial aficionado, whose love for the heavens has taken him to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and sailing in the North Atlantic, where he earned his celestial navigation certificate through the School of Ocean Sailing and Navigation. He also wrote and hosted public astronomy programs and planetarium programs in and around his home in upstate New York.