{"id":570,"date":"2020-10-01T03:42:06","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T03:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=570"},"modified":"2020-10-02T03:29:01","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T03:29:01","slug":"october-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/october-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"October 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Planet watching is exciting this month\nas Jupiter and Saturn draw closer to each other for December’s great\nconjunction. Start watching them evenings just east of Sagittarius.\nEach planet is moving toward Capricornus. Jupiter is moving eastward\nfaster than Saturn and will catch up to it a few days before the end\nof the year for the closest conjunction the two objects have had in\nalmost four centuries. The moon will pass by the planets on the 22nd<\/sup>\nand 23rd<\/sup>. Also out there, between Jupiter and Saturn, is\nPluto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mars is moving from between the fish in Pisces to alongside the southern fish. It’s at opposition on the 14th 0.42 astronomical units from Earth. That means it’s 42% of the distance from us as we are from the sun on average. Besides being closest to Earth at opposition, it’s opposite the sun. So when the sun sets, the red planet rises and stays up all night until the sun comes up again. It’s a great time to view Mars. If you can’t see Mars that night, don’t worry. The view will be almost as good all this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Venus starts the month in Leo and will\nhave a conjunction just 0.1\u00b0 from Regulus on the 2nd<\/sup>. The\nbest viewing for this is going to be from about 50\u00b0 to 90\u00b0 east\nlongitude. Viewers in western Asia and the western part of the Indian\nOcean will get a splendid view of Venus one-fifth of a moon width\nfrom the bluish double star 79 light years away. Look eastward in the\nmorning. Everyone who’s not in that region will see Venus a little\nfarther from the star before or after the close call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The moon passes by Venus on the 13th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercury is an evening object in\nOctober. For northern hemisphere observers, it’s barely above the\nhorizon in the west. Viewers near the equator and south of it will\nget a better view this month. The planet’s at greatest elongation\n25.8\u00b0 east of the sun on the 1st<\/sup>. From about 30\u00b0 south,\nthe planet sets about two hours after the sun on that date. A very\nthin crescent moon will be right of Mercury on the 17th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two full moons this month.\nThe first is on the 1st<\/sup>. People in cultures that celebrate\nHalloween will delight in the fact that the second is on the 31st<\/sup>.\nThe phases between them are first quarter on the 9th<\/sup>, new\non the 16th<\/sup>, and last quarter on the 23rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to a second full moon, October has a second planet at opposition. Viewing that one won’t be as good as for Mars though. Uranus reaches opposition on the 31st. Since it’s just 3\u00b0 north of the full moon, don’t expect to see this dim planet. At its brightest, Uranus is barely visible with the naked eye. You must have a dark sky and good eyesight to see it. Binoculars will help and, of course, a telescope is better. But for this opposition of Uranus, even if you find it in a telescope, the best view is a week before or after opposition. It’s about 18.8 astronomical units from us.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moon is at apogee on the 3rd<\/sup>\nat 406,300 km or 252,500 miles. It’s at perigee on the 16th<\/sup>\nat 356,900 km or 221,800 miles. And it’s at apogee again on the 31st<\/sup>\nat 406,500 km or 252,600 miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moon crosses the equator going\nnorth on the 2nd<\/sup>, reaches northern lunistice on the 9th<\/sup>,\ngoes south of the equator on the 15th<\/sup>, reaches southern\nlunistice on the 22nd<\/sup>, and goes north of the equator again\non the 29th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venus is at perihelion on the 30th<\/sup>.\nIt’s about 0.7 earth-sun distances from the sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Planet watching is exciting this month as Jupiter and Saturn draw closer to each other for December’s great conjunction. Start watching them evenings just east of Sagittarius. Each planet is moving toward Capricornus. Jupiter is moving eastward faster than Saturn and will catch up to it a few days before the end of the year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-59"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":577,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions\/577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}