The night sky: October 2012

As the nights begin to get shorter the autumn constellations are becoming more prominent with the great square of Pegasus high above the southern horizon. Pegasus makes a fine sign post to other nearby star patterns. Pisces lies to the lower left of Pegasus, with Aquarius & Capricornus to the lower right. However, the most interesting features are M33 which is a bright galaxy in the constellation of Triangulum, and M31 the Andromeda galaxy which may be seen in a pair of binoculars.

In the northern sky the Plough (Ursa Major) lies low down on its back, with the ‘pointers’ in the forward part of the bowl leading the way to the pole star, and the W shaped constellation of Cassiopeia high over head. Cassiopeia lies in a dense part of the Milky Way so that binoculars will reveal numerous star clusters.

The Harvest Moon occurs on October 29^th. This full Moon is often referred to as the Full Hunter’s Moon, Blood Moon, or Sanguine Moon. Native Americans named this bright moon for obvious reasons. The leaves are falling from trees, the deer are fattened, and it’s time to begin storing up meat for the long winter ahead. Because the fields were traditionally reaped in late September or early October, hunters could easily see fox and other animals that come out to glean from the fallen grains. Probably because of the threat of winter looming close, the Hunter’s Moon is generally accorded with special honour, historically serving as an important feast day in both Western Europe and among many Native American tribes.

Of the planets, Jupiter lies in the middle of Taurus the bull, and is the brightest star like object in the eastern night sky at magnitude -2.6. The giant planet is visible though out the night, and transits the meridian at 04:25 am during October. On Oct 05th Jupiter is 1.7 degrees north of the Moon. The above photograph shows Jupiter as seen though a 12 inch reflector telescope on the night of 22nd of September.

The planet Venus is a brilliant star-like object in the eastern sky before sunrise shining with a magnitude of -4.05 in the constellation of Leo.

On October 26th the planet Mercury is at greatest eastern elongation (24.1°), and may be seen low down in the south western sky after sunset, in line with two other planets.

The planet Mars & the ringed planet Saturn are also low down in the south western sky just after sunset making them difficult to observe. On October 18th Mars lies 1.6 degrees south of the Moon, and on October 26^th at 02:42 am Saturn is at conjunction with the Sun.

Top, the northern sky, and lower the southern sky at 10 pm on the night of 15th October

   Sky Diary  
Oct 04 06:21 Pleiades 4.7°N of the Moon. Visible from current location, Altitude 53°, Azimuth 247° in the constellation Taurus the bull. Moon phase 83%
Oct 05 00:11 Hyades 4.1°S of the Moon. Visible from current location, Altitude 30°, Azimuth 087° in the constellation Taurus the bull. Moon phase 78%
Oct 05 05:37 Aldebaran 4.0°S of the Moon. Visible from current location, Altitude 68°, Azimuth 214° in the constellation of Taurus bull. Moon phase 76%
Oct 08 03:36 Last Quarter of Moon
Oct 15 08:02 New Moon
Oct 21 23:32 First Quarter of Moon
Oct 28th End of British Summer Time, clocks go back 1 hour
Oct 29 15:49 Full Moon

By Richard Pearson