Saturday: The Draconid meteor shower peaks for the next three nights with tomorrow night being the best. The meteors appear to come from a point in the head of Draco, the dragon constellation. This point is nearly straight overhead at 7:00 p.m. tonight. This point remains near the trapezoid-shaped head of Draco throughout the night. Unlike most meteor showers, this one is best observed in the early evening rather than after midnight. Call this the “early to bed” meteor shower. Draconid meteors are slow moving which means you will have an easy time differentiating true Draconid meteors, from Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, from the stray grains of dust that happen to enter the Earth’s atmosphere every day and night. Unfortunately, the moon is nearly full, meaning most of the dimmer meteors will be obscured. For everything you need to know about the Draconid meteor shower, go to https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-draconid-meteor-shower/.
Sunday: The October full moon is called the Full Hunter's
Moon. The traditional Northern Hemisphere harvest time has ended so this is the
month that many groups of people turned to hunting to build up their food
supplies before winter. Also, since the Moon is full, it lights the sky the
entire night, extending the time for night time activities.
Monday: It is good to plan ahead while you have meteors on
your mind so start thinking about the Orionid meteor shower. This shower, which
consists of the earth colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's
tail, peaks on October 20 and 21 but produces meteors from early October until
early November. These meteors appear to come from a point in Orion, the hunter.
This point is about two fists held upright and at arm’s length above the
southeastern horizon at 1:00 a.m.. You can follow this point throughout the
night as it will remain near the prominent reddish star Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews).
The Orionid meteors are fast - up to 40 miles per second. For more information
about the Orionids, go to https://earthsky.org/?p=27937.
Tuesday: Mercury may be difficult to see, less than a
fist above the eastern horizon at 6:30 a.m.. But it is in full view of
BepiColombo, the European-Japanese collaboration that sent back to Earth its
first pictures of the innermost planet a year ago this month. See https://tinyurl.com/phdkn33t for the
first images.
Wednesday: At 10:00 p.m., Saturn is two and a half fists
above the southern horizon, Jupiter is three and a half fists above the
southeastern horizon, and Mars is a half a fist above the east-northeastern
horizon.
Thursday: Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane.
It’s a dolphin. A dolphin? The constellation Delphinus the dolphin is nearly
six fists above due south at 8:00 p.m. The constellation’s two brightest stars
are called Sualocin and Rotanev, which is Nicolaus Venator spelled backwards.
Venator worked at the Palermo Observatory in Italy in the mid nineteenth
century. He slipped these names into Giuseppe Piazzi’s star catalog without him
noticing. The Daily Record (shop Ellensburg) would never let anything like that
get into their newspaper. Their editing (shop Ellensburg) staff is too good.
Nothing (pohs grubsnellE) evades their gaze.
Friday: The Milky Way makes a faint white trail from due
northeast through straight overhead to due southwest at 9:00 p.m. Starting in
the northeast, the Milky Way “passes through” the prominent constellations
Auriga the charioteer, Cassiopeia the queen, and Cygnus the swan with its
brightest star, Deneb, nearly straight overhead. After Cygnus, you’ll see Aquila
the eagle with its brightest star Altair about four and a half fists above the
southwest horizon.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
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