The Moon
Last Quarter -- 1st up from 23:37 to 15:35
New ------------- 7th up from 06:56 to 17:45
First Quarter - 14th up from 14:55 to 23:03
Full ------------- 23rd up from 17:27 to 08:26
We’re in Autumn now, gone are the warm nights of Summer or Indian Summer, longer darker nights, good, but colder, not so good. And some government department puts the clocks back to UT. Dark by 8.30 in October giving us 8 hours for observing, if we can stand the cold.
Planets in October
You will be able to see tiny Mercury in the east on the 1st as it will rise an hour before the Sun, but only on the 1st, by the 2nd it’ll be much closer to the Sun and not safe, so don’t try it. So Mercury is out of bounds all month.
The month proper starts with 4 planets in the west, going down with the Sun at about 6pm, Venus, Saturn, Mercury and Mars, but all are too close to be observed safely. On the 8th little will have changed, but Saturn and Mercury will be within half a degree of each other, as Mercury flashes past Saturn. A week later, on the 16th, Mercury will be within a degree of the Sun, he’s a fast mover, Messenger of the Gods after all. All this is in the west, and the situation will be much the same in the east, when they all rise. However, by the 23rd, Saturn will be up 2 hours before the Sun, so should be safe to seek. It’ll be very low of course, and what you see won’t be worth the effort, being so low in dirty air and bright twilight. It’ll be a bit better than edge-on and will be much better to see, but wait till next month.
Venus is similarly unavailable for the month, as also are Mars and Mercury.
Neptune however, will be up by 6pm on the 1st, and available all night. By the end of the month it’ll be rising at 4pm. Mag 8 and 2arcsec, a tiny blue spot, and will need a telescope to see it.
Jupiter, 50arcsec and mag–2.9, and much smaller Uranus, 4arcsec and mag 5.7, will rise an hour later, and just over a degree from each other. By the end of October they’ll rise at 3:30pm with Neptune an hour earlier. At the other side of the sky, Neptune will set at 2:30am on the 1st and at 1:00am on the 31st. Jupiter and Uranus will set at 6am on the 1st in dawn twilight and at 2:30am on the 31st.
Comets
Comet 10P/Tempel will be in Cetus, a few degrees below and to the left of Jupiter, at mag 10ish. So not a good prospect except for photography. Perhaps worth a try with a big telescope like the 14” Meade at Austerfield in October, as I feel fairly confident in its position. But as it’s a fuzzy object it’ll appear dimmer than the mag 10 it’s supposed to be as that’s based on a condensed object like a star.
The better hope is 103P/Hartley 2, brighter and longer lasting, hopefully.
If you have access to the internet and use google Earth and Sky, this is what to do, and it should work for other comets too.
http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/iau/ephemerides/comets will get you to a long list of comets. Click on your choice and its ephemeredes will be screened. Ephemerides? Predicted position of heavenly bodies, they tell you where they’ll be on certain dates. You’ll also find tons more data than you can shout at, but look for the line “Download this Ephemeris as a KML file”. Click on it to download it. It should settle on your PC’s desktop or wherever you choose. When it’s arrived, click on the file, or double click if necessary, and it’ll wake up google Earth if you have it on your PC, and present you with a message suggesting you switch to google Sky. Click on Switch to Sky, and it’ll show you the track of the comet, with dates and all sorts of other data. Well done, Mr. Google.
Doing this for the one comet worth looking for this autumn, 103P/Hartley 2, tells you it’ll be close to Shedar, Alpha CAS, in Cassiopeia, on the 1st of October. It then takes a straight line to be between the legs of Gemini on the 31st. I couldn’t actually see it, even with a 10” telescope, in mid September but I did photograph it and it looked faint, but it’s forecast to get brighter, so we live in hope. It’s brightest should be on the 20th of October, after which it’ll pull away from us and get fainter.
Meteors Showers.
Not much to look forward to this month. Only the Orionids, which peak on the 21st of October and promise a max of 20/hour at the zenith, though they run all month and into November.
International Space Station
28 Oct -1.0 18:37 10° up in SSW getting 13° up in the S
29 Oct -0.9 19:02 10° up in SW getting 15° up in the SW
30 Oct -1.7 17:54 10° up in SSW getting 18° up in the SE
30 Oct -0.3 19:28 10° up in WSW getting 11° up in the WSW
There are many more, earlier in the month, but all are between 3am and 5am. You’ll have to check their timing on www.heavens-above.com yourself.
Iridium Flares
These are their timings during October, taken from Chris Peat's site www.heavens-above.com, where you can get much more data.
-Date -- Time - Mag Alt Direction
01 Oct 19:17:51 -3 -- 34° 5° (N )
02 Oct 04:40:17 -2 -- 50° 196° (SSW)
02 Oct 06:07:50 -4 -- 35° 140° (SE )
02 Oct 19:11:38 -1 -- 36° 5° (N )
03 Oct 04:34:10 -3 -- 51° 195° (SSW)
03 Oct 19:05:27 -1 -- 38° 5° (N )
04 Oct 18:59:16 -2 -- 39° 6° (N )
05 Oct 05:58:44 -2 -- 38° 149° (SSE)
05 Oct 18:53:06 -2 -- 41° 7° (N )
06 Oct 05:52:43 -2 -- 37° 149° (SSE)
06 Oct 18:46:56 -3 -- 43° 8° (N )
07 Oct 04:19:06 -3 -- 48° 208° (SSW)
07 Oct 18:40:45 -1 -- 45° 7° (N )
08 Oct 18:34:37 -5 -- 46° 9° (N )
09 Oct 05:43:39 -3 -- 40° 157° (SSE)
09 Oct 18:28:26 -2 -- 48° 9° (N )
10 Oct 05:37:36 -3 -- 39° 158° (SSE)
10 Oct 18:22:18 -3 -- 50° 10° (N )
11 Oct 04:03:59 -2 -- 44° 218° (SW )
12 Oct 03:56:07 -0 -- 46° 216° (SW )
12 Oct 03:57:54 -3 -- 45° 217° (SW )
12 Oct 18:10:01 -7 -- 53° 14° (NNE)
13 Oct 05:28:33 -1 -- 41° 168° (SSE)
13 Oct 05:28:34 -1 -- 42° 169° (SSE)
13 Oct 06:16:36 -3 -- 23° 71° (ENE)
13 Oct 18:03:52 -8 -- 54° 14° (NNE)
14 Oct 05:22:30 -4 -- 41° 167° (SSE)
14 Oct 06:01:08 -2 -- 20° 67° (ENE)
14 Oct 17:57:45 -5 -- 56° 16° (NNE)
15 Oct 05:45:40 -1 -- 17° 63° (ENE)
15 Oct 05:54:58 -1 -- 20° 65° (ENE)
15 Oct 06:26:01 -0 -- 17° 124° (ESE)
15 Oct 17:51:37 -2 -- 57° 18° (NNE)
16 Oct 05:39:29 -5 -- 17° 62° (ENE)
16 Oct 06:20:04 -3 -- 16° 125° (SE )
16 Oct 17:45:29 -1 -- 58° 20° (NNE)
17 Oct 05:14:28 -1 -- 12° 55° (NE )
17 Oct 05:24:18 -6 -- 15° 58° (ENE)
17 Oct 06:23:02 -1 -- 19° 128° (SE )
17 Oct 17:39:23 -1 -- 60° 22° (NNE)
18 Oct 04:58:54 -5 -- 10° 51° (NE )
18 Oct 05:07:23 -8 -- 41° 177° (S )
18 Oct 05:08:19 -2 -- 12° 54° (NE )
18 Oct 06:17:04 -2 -- 18° 129° (SE )
18 Oct 17:33:13 -1 -- 61° 23° (NNE)
18 Oct 19:40:17 -4 -- 18° 9° (N )
19 Oct 05:01:19 -1 -- 41° 178° (S )
19 Oct 06:19:57 -1 -- 22° 133° (SE )
19 Oct 19:33:24 -3 -- 21° 10° (N )
20 Oct 17:20:58 -0 -- 64° 28° (NNE)
20 Oct 19:27:02 -7 -- 24° 10° (N )
21 Oct 04:52:47 -1 -- 41° 182° (S )
21 Oct 19:20:45 -7 -- 26° 11° (NNE)
22 Oct 04:52:17 -2 -- 40° 189° (S )
22 Oct 06:10:56 -6 -- 23° 138° (SE )
22 Oct 19:14:29 -7 -- 28° 12° (NNE)
23 Oct 04:46:13 -3 -- 40° 188° (S )
23 Oct 19:08:10 -5 -- 30° 14° (NNE)
24 Oct 19:01:53 -7 -- 32° 14° (NNE)
25 Oct 06:02:34 -6 -- 26° 145° (SE )
25 Oct 18:55:41 -2 -- 33° 16° (NNE)
26 Oct 04:37:15 -2 -- 39° 197° (SSW)
26 Oct 18:49:30 -3 -- 35° 17° (NNE)
27 Oct 04:31:08 -5 -- 39° 198° (SSW)
28 Oct 05:52:39 -5 -- 27° 151° (SSE)
29 Oct 18:32:00 -1 -- 40° 20° (NNE)
31 Oct 05:43:37 -4 -- 29° 158° (SSE)
For sky charts for any subject call the observatory at www.donastro.org.uk