BACKYARD STARGAZER: Busy October skies expected!
Francis Parnell
By Francis Parnell
October skies offer a number of eye-catching conjunctions from dusk to dawn. And the ringed planet Saturn is at opposition on the night of the 3rd.
All night on the 3rd/4th, Saturn is at opposition, 784,175,187 million miles from Earth. Face east to see the bright yellow ringed planet rising at dusk. If you have a small telescope, you can view the ring system at 50 to 60 power.
45 minutes before sunrise on the 5th, look east, about halfway up, to spot the wanIng crescent Moon with red Mars 1 degree above it.
45 minutes before sunrise on the 6th, face east to see the thin waning lunar crescent with bright Jupiter above it.
45 minutes after sunset on the 14th, look southwest to catch the 4-day old waxing lunar crescent less than 2 degrees left of Antares, the red heart of Scorpius, the Scorpion.
45 minutes after sunset on the 23rd, face east to see the waxing gibbous Moon about 10 degrees upper right of yellow Saturn.
45 minutes after sunset on the 24th, look easy to observe the waxing gibbous Moon about 10 degrees upper left of Saturn.
Watch the Full Hunter’s Moon rising on the 26th.
FAST FACT: A few billion years ago, a Supergiant star blew itself apart in a Supernova explosion so violent that 20-billion thermonuclear bombs exploding simultaneously wouldn’t even come close in comparison. In the first millisecond of that explosion, all the elements that make up our solar system – including us – were manufactured. About 5-billion years ago, the shockwave and some of the debris came into contact with a huge cloud of hydrogen gas and dust. Because of that contact, some of the hydrogen gas and dust started to contract under “gravitational attraction” and eventually the Sun, planets, comets, and the rest of the objects in the solar system were formed. As Professor Carl Sagan said, “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies, were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. WE are made of star stuff.”
“Keep looking up!”