Welcome to the October night sky. This month, we enter the autumn night sky. Overhead from a dark sky location, the Milky Way can be seen passing overhead. It is seen all the way from the eastern to the western horizon.
From Portugal, in the early evenings, the bright star Fomalhaut can now be seen low in the south. This star is in the constellation of Piscis-Austrinus, the southern fish. Just above this constellation is Capricornus.
Moving towards the south, we see the constellations of Aquarius and Pisces. More towards the east, we then have Aries and Taurus. Low down on the east north-east horizon and close to Taurus, we have the constellation of Auriga the Charioteer with the bright star Capella. This star, at this time of the year, will be seen to flash all the colours of the rainbow due to the refraction of light in our low atmosphere.
On the 2nd of this month, we have a new Moon, and this causes an annular eclipse of the Sun, but it is only visible from the southern pacific area.
At the end of the first week of October, the planet Venus returns as an evening star and, by the end of the month, it is shining brightly at magnitude -4 in the constellation of Scorpius, close to the star Antares.
On the 8th, we have the Draconids meteors and, on the 21st, the Orion meteor shower from the tail of Comet Halley. On the 14th, the ringed planet Saturn and the Moon are very close to each other, and, on the 17th, we have a second super full Moon.
The comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is at its closest point to the Earth on October 12 at a distance of 44 million kilometres. It should be visible just as darkness falls from this date. It will be low in the west, just to the left of Arcturus in the constellation of Boötes. It is not known if this comet will be bright enough to be easily seen, but if it is, it could be followed until the end of the month where it will be in the constellation of Ophiuchus, just north of Scorpius.
Summertime finishes this year on Sunday morning, October 27, when the clock goes back one hour. This brings us back to solar time.
The Moon is new on the 2nd, first quarter on the 10th, full on the 17th and last quarter on October 24.
By Clive Jackson
|| features@algarveresident.com
Clive Jackson is the director of the Camera Obscura – Tavira EYE attraction, located near the Castle of Tavira. Specialising in education and public outreach.
281 322 527 | info@torredetavira.com www.torredetavira.com
To see the October Sky Map, click on the pdf link below
