October Skies

The month of October brings us two meteor showers.

The first is the Orionid shower, which will begin on the 20th. The Moon will be of little hinderance as the peak occurs during the early morning hours on the 21st.

Beginning around 11:30 p.m. on the 20th, look due east and just above the horizon. While the peak of the shower will produce 10 to 20 meteors per hour the Orionid meteors, the product of Halley’s Comet, enter the Earth’s atmosphere at a very high rate of speed and can be quite bright.

The second is the Taurid shower which will peak on the 31st. Look due east beginning around 9 p.m. While not as prolific as the Orionids, Taurids have been known to produce some quite spectacular meteors.

If you venture out at about 11 p.m. on the 6th of October, the Moon will be splitting the difference between Saturn and Jupiter. Placed almost exactly halfway between the two giant planets, it sits on almost a straight line between the two.

By the end of this month, the bright morning apparition of Venus will come to an end as it sinks past Mercury and then is lost beyond the eastern horizon as it approaches conjunction with the Sun. We’ll pick up Venus near the western horizon in November.

The Moon will be first quarter on the 3rd, full on the 9th, last quarter on the 17th, and new on the 25th. Looking to the east-southeast on the 8th, about 1 hour after sunset, the nearly full moon can be found just below and slightly left of Jupiter.

Looking east-northeast on the 14th, around 11 p.m. local time, the waning Moon will be slightly above and slightly to the left of Mars. On the 24th, looking east, very close to the horizon and about 20 minutes before sunrise, a thin sliver of a crescent Moon will be just above the planet Mercury.

A good pair of binoculars will aid you in viewing this close pairing.

There will not be a first Saturday star party at the Etscorn Campus Observatory this month.

Clear Skies!

Jon Spargo

N.M. Tech Astronomy Club