{"id":1207,"date":"2013-09-29T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2013-09-29T00:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2013-09-28T16:53:44","modified_gmt":"2013-09-28T16:53:44","slug":"october-2013-astronomy-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/29\/october-2013-astronomy-events\/","title":{"rendered":"October 2013 astronomy events"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a1SkyCaramba! Weekly astronomy blog for the week ending October 5, 2013<\/em><\/p>\n

October is another good month for planet watching. Whether you like to watch in the evening, around midnight, or as dawn approaches, there\u2019s something for you.<\/p>\n

Three planets are low in the west right after sunset. They are Mercury, Venus, and Saturn. The moon will help you find Mercury as it passes by the planet on the 6th<\/sup>. The next night, the moon is between Venus and Saturn. Then on the 8th<\/sup>, the moon is above Saturn. Your best chance to see Mercury is on the 9th<\/sup> when it\u2019s at its farthest east of the sun this time around. This greatest elongation measures 25\u00b0. In its usual fashion, Mercury becomes hard to see just a few weeks later, so don\u2019t expect to find it in the second half of the month.<\/p>\n

Remember that the planets are moving against a backdrop of stars that is also moving. Venus will be by Antares around the 16th<\/sup>. The planet is clearly headed toward the teapot of Sagittarius by the end of the month. The constellation of the archer starts the month in the south (for northern hemisphere observers) at sunset. It\u2019s in the southwest at sunset by the end of October.<\/p>\n

Pegasus is rising as darkness sets in when October starts. You\u2019ll see the constellation\u2019s Great Square higher and higher each night.<\/p>\n

Around midnight, Jupiter rises in Gemini. It\u2019s close to a dim star named Wasat. On the 4th<\/sup>, the two will be just 0.1\u00b0 apart! They\u2019re separated by 0.5\u00b0 on the 10th<\/sup> and a full degree on the 16th<\/sup> as the big planet moves eastward. You\u2019ll see the moon in the neighborhood on the 24th<\/sup> and 25th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Closer to dawn, you can spot Mars with the moon next to it on the 1st<\/sup>. The red planet is between Cancer and Leo. When Mars passes Leo\u2019s bright star Regulus mid-month, the planet and star are 0.9\u00b0 apart. Next time the moon passes Mars, the planet is south of Leo.<\/p>\n

Depending on events that cannot be predicted, the Mars and Regulus show could be quite exciting as Comet C\/2012 S1 (ISON) is near the star and then seems to travel alongside the planet in late October. Comet brightness is notoriously hard to anticipate. When a Russian astronomy team discovered Comet ISON a year ago, scientists thought it might be as bright as the naked eye planets by now. However, it hasn\u2019t brightened up anywhere near that much. It\u2019s getting closer to the sun and will be closest next month, so maybe that will help.<\/p>\n

The moon will be new on the 5th<\/sup>, at first quarter on the 11th<\/sup>, full on the 18th<\/sup>, and at last quarter on the 26th<\/sup>. This month\u2019s full moon comes with a penumbral eclipse. The moon will pass into the northern outer part of the earth\u2019s shadow from 21:50 on the 18th<\/sup> to 1:50 on the 19th<\/sup>. Africa, Europe, the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic will be great viewing spots for the entire event. Observers in western and central Asia will see the beginning of it. Most of the Americas will see the end.<\/p>\n

And just a few other notes: Uranus is at opposition on the 3rd<\/sup>. It\u2019s up all night. Venus is at aphelion the same day.<\/p>\n

Below are some graphics (simulated with Stellarium) showing a few of the views you might expect this month.<\/p>\n

\u00a1SkyCaramba!<\/p>\n

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Three planets get together after sunset, Jupiter makes a close call on a dim star, Mars passes by the lion’s heart, there’s a penumbral lunar eclipse, and maybe a comet will make a show for us too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[145,194,419,418,193,88,5,14,25,4,30,114,385,15,147,614,66,17,246],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1207"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1214,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions\/1214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}