The Night Sky in October!
This is not intended to be comprehensive - it is a quick guide to help you find a few things in the night sky without any equipment - just your eyes.
All of these are very bright and easy to find when walking around the village.
The planets
Mercury is setting at Sunset an cannot be seen.
Venus - from mid month things improve and by the end of the month it can be seen bright in the SW 90 minutes before Sunset.
Saturn rises in the south east at Sunset and can be seen most of the night - setting in the west around 4am.
Mars rises around 11:30pm in the NE and is high in the south at Sunrise.
Jupiter rises in the NE at 9:30am and is high in the south at Sunrise.
The full Moon is on the 17th. It rises in the East at Sunset around 6pm. It will be close to the horizon - giving it an illusion that it is bigger.
Look out for the attached charts to help you find Auriga, Taurus, Orion ans Gemini.
There are some morning well placed and bright International Space Station passes (ISS) this month. They are very bright - one starting at 6:36am on the 24th.
There is a comet to look out for in the west at Sunset. From the 12th it will be dark enough to see the area. It is going to be dim but it might be posible to see. Its returning from its sling shot around the sun - so there is a possibilty that it might start to break up and if it does it could get very bright.
I have made or found the following charts to help you find: -
- 1st Saturn
- 15th Saturn and the Moon
- 20th Jupiter and the Moon
- 23rd Moon and Mars
- 24th ISS pass
- 27th Jupiter, Auriga and Taurus
- 31 Jupiter, Mars. Auriga, Taurus, Gemini and Orion
- 31st Venus
- Phases of the Moon
- Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan Atlas