The Moon
Full Moon 4th 18:04 -- 07:34
Last Quarter 11th 23:31 - 15:28
New Moon 18th 08:08 - 17:29
First Quarter 26th 15:06 - 00:00
The first half of the month is for Lunarphiles and the second half for Deep Sky observers.
Planets. Jupiter, big and bright in the south at dusk, setting at 2am at the start and by 11pm at the end of the month. Like the faithful Robin to Jupiter's Batman, Neptune follows some 5° behind.
Uranus keeps station some 35° behind Jupiter so will be available all month, setting more than 3 hours after Jupiter.
Some close encounters of the Jovian kind this month
On 3rd Io and Europa between 8.35 and 8.45pm
On 9th Europa and Ganymede - 7.15pm
On 10th Europa and Io - 10pm
On 12th Europa and Io - 5.25am and again at 9pm
On 15th Europa and Io - 6.35pm
On 15th Ganymede and Io - 9.45pm
On 16th Ganymede and Europa - 10.45pm
On 18th Europa and Io - 12.15am
On 22nd Europa and Io - 8.45pm
On 23rd at 12.45am on the left will be Ganymede very close to Io and on the other side will be Europa coming away from in front of the planet and Callisto going behind. Moon shadows should also be visible.
In the east, Mars is the first to rise, just before midnight on the 1st, close to the Eskimo Nebula NGC2392 and the comet Lulin, advancing to 10.15pm on the 31st, this time in the midst of the Beehive Cluster M44. It'll be about mag 0.5 and 8" in diameter. Getting large enough to see some detail in really good seeing.
Following some way behind is Venus, rising at 4.45am on the 1st and by 5.30am at the end of the month. Very bright at mag -3.9 and 10" in diameter.
Next up, an hour and a half before the Sun will be Mercury, bright at mag 0.4, and possible, in the best conditions, to see some detail, but very unlikely in Doncaster's skies.
Next is Saturn, half an hour later than Mercury and still an hour before the Sun. It is 16" in diameter but at mag 1.1, dimmer than Mercury and much dimmer than Venus. Dimmer, of course, because its rings are still edge-on and almost invisible. However, it is in a great hurry to get higher while Venus and Mercury are hurrying to get lower and closer to the Sun, so if you can, watch these three for the first two weeks of the month and you'll see Mercury and Saturn get within 1/3° of each other on the morning of the 8th, and then Saturn and Venus get within ½° of each other on the morning of the 13th. Then on the 16th a very thin waning Moon joins the group to make a good photo opportunity.
Mercury will be available to the 23rd but then gets too close to the Sun to seek with optical aid, but always take care, anyway, when looking at something near the Sun with telescopes or binoculars.
Meteor Showers. There are some half dozen peaking in October but only the Orionids are worth going out in the cold with your garden lounger to record. They could peak at 20/hour on the 21st, and will be coming from the Radiant, in the direction of Orion. Meteors not coming from the Radiant, are referred to as Sporadics. The Moon shouldn't interfere.
Comets. There are always lots of comets about the sky, but none is worth looking for even with reasonable binoculars, all are too faint to be seen with anything less than quite a big telescope or good CCD equipment for photography.
What else. Well, this is the month when Orion shows himself fully above the horizon, bringing all his beautiful objects to us. His neighbours, Monoceros, Gemini, Taurus and Canis Major, also contain many nebulae and star clusters for us to observe and photograph, as do Auriga and Perseus, already well up. There just isn't enough time to observe them all, even though we put the clocks back later in the month to bring forward the darkness we need. Colder nights but longer nights, and generally clearer skies, from October on. Twinkling stars however, don't mean better seeing, the twinkling is caused by shimmering air currents, making for poorer detail in the eyepiece.
For more information on any of the above visit http://donastro.blogspot.com or type "donastro" in your favourite search engine.
Satellites - International Space Station
None at sensible times during October
Iridium Flares
4th 19:26:40 58° up, to the SSE. Very bright
10th 19:05:39 54° up, to the South. Bright
11th 18:59:39 53° up, to the South Very Bright
16th 18:14:25 14° up, to the West. Bright
For more data visit www.Heavens-above.com
Brian