The month will start with a thin waxing crescent having been New a couple of days before. So she’ll be at First Quarter on the 7th, rising at 3.50pm and setting at 11pm. She’ll be Full on the 14th, rising at 5.30pm and setting at 7.00am. Last Quarter will be on the 21st, rising at 22.40pm and setting at 3.20pm next day.
The days continue to shorten, giving us another 2 hours of good darkness for observing by the end of the month, including the putting back of the clocks on the 26th. For observing, the first ten nights and the last few are for Deep Sky folk and the middle of the month is for Lunaphiles.
Planets. Jupiter will be low but bright in the south at nightfall, unmistakable, but will set by 11pm on the 1st and by 8pm on the 31st. Almost gone, so make the most of it. Look for the moons and their shadows on the face of the planet, and you should also be able to see the two major bands on the disc with telescopes, even though it is low.
Saturn is back with us, under the rear paws of Leo, rising in the east in early dawn twilight on the 1st. By the end of the month it’ll rise by 2.30am and will have moved to within a third of a degree of the rearmost paw of Leo. It’ll be brighter than that star, but at m1.0 (Magnitude 1.0), just a shadow of itself earlier in the year, having tilted so that it’s rings will be almost level with Earth’s position, making them difficult to see in binoculars, though a good telescope will show them. The silver lining to this cloud, is that with that same good telescope, you should start to look for occultations and eclipses with its moons, as their orbits will also have tilted. Not easy, as most of them are quite small and much further away than Jupiter’s moons. But by dawn on the 31st, Saturn will be 25° above the eastern horizon, making the task a bit easier.
Also in the dawn twilight, is Mercury, following some 20° behind Saturn and visible from mid to almost the end of the month. At m0.8, only a little dimmer than Saturn, which shows how much Saturn has dimmed with its ring system edge on.
Venus will be visible low in the west, all month, soon after sunset, and very bright at m4.0. Mars too but much dimmer and getting more difficult to see as the month progresses as it’ll be getting closer to the Sun, and at m1.5 not bright.
The blue discs of Uranus and Neptune however, will be well placed for most of the month, with Neptune setting by midnight at monthend, and Uranus by 2am. Uranus, at m5.8 almost at naked eye visibility, if we could remove all the pollution round Doncaster.
Vesta at m6.9 is also well placed, but reflects white light from the Sun, so more difficult to tell from stars in the field. It starts the month 2° above the star Menkar, Alpha CET, in Cetus, 22° to the right of the Pleiades, and will have tracked westwards about 6° by the end of the month. It rises on the 1st at 9pm, so it available all night, all month. As usual, charts available if needed.
Meteor Showers. There are a few showers in October but only one strong one, the Orionids. Active all month, but peaking with 20/hour at the zenith, of fast meteors on the 21st. The others produce under 5/hour.
What else. All the popular objects are coming on stage at this time of year, longer and darker nights, make them easier to see too. The Pleiades (M45) rises as the sky darkens, The Andromeda Spiral is already high. So is the third large spiral in the Local Group of galaxies, M33, not as easy but beautiful. The Double Cluster in Perseus is high too, and equally good to look at. Cassiopeia’s clusters are up all month and Auriga’s have just cleared the eastern horizon by dusk on the 1st. All the Milky Way items in Cygnus and Vulpecula and Lyra, are still there, and the Globulars in Hercules too. By midnight on the 1st, Orion will be rising and will be completely clear by 1am, with all its goodies on show. If you haven’t seen the Orion Nebula, in the sword, now’s the time. Binoculars will show it, slightly green too, but a telescope view will make you gasp!
Satellites. Check on www.heavens-above.com for details but here are a few of the brighter ones.
International Space Station
2nd 7.50pm from W to SE reaching 42° high. It takes about 5 mins to cross the sky
3rd 6.41pm from W to ESE reaching 57° high
4th 7.08pm from W to SE reaching 40° high
Iridium Flares will brighter very suddenly, right on time, so will surprise your friends. You will need to be watching the right place in time
3rd 19:18:21 58° high in the SSE
3rd 20:53:54 47° high in the East
8th 20:32:55 51° high in the ESE
9th 20:26:55 50° high in the ESE
12th 05:25:07 45° high in the SSW
Brian