Saturday: Saturn is three and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due southeast at 9:30 p.m.
Sunday: The constellation Vulpecula, the little fox, stands
nearly six fists above due southwest at 9:00 p.m. It is in the middle of the
Summer Triangle, which is defined by the bright stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair.
First find Deneb, the bright star nearly straight overhead. It is at the tail
of the constellation Cygnus the swan. Move your eyes down towards the horizon
and through the long neck of the swan. The fox is so faint that you need very
dark skies to see it. While dim, it has a lot to offer astronomers. The first
pulsar ever discovered is in Vulpecula. So is one of the closest extrasolar
planets with water in its atmosphere.
Monday: At 6:30 a.m., Jupiter is four and a half fists above
the southeastern horizon. Mars is one fist to the upper right of Jupiter at
this time.
Tuesday: The Orionid meteor shower consists of the Earth
colliding with pieces of the remains of Halley's Comet's tail. This shower
peaks after midnight tonight until dawn for the next three mornings. This is
not a meteor shower that typically results in a meteor storm. There will be
about 15-20 meteors per hour, many more meteors than are visible on a typical
night but not the storm that some showers bring. The Moon will be in the waxing
crescent phase, obscuring dimmer meteorites. Meteor showers are named after the
constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear
to come from a point in Orion, the hunter. This point is about one fist held
upright and at arm’s length above due east at midnight. You can follow this
point throughout the night as it will remain one fist above the prominent
reddish star Betelgeuse (pronounced Bet'-el-jews). The Orionid meteors are fast
- up to 40 miles per second. If you miss it these next few mornings, you can
catch the tail end of the shower every night until early November. For more
information, go to https://earthsky.org/?p=27937.
Wednesday: The bright star Capella is two fists above due
northeast at 9:00 p.m.
Thursday: What time is teatime? Certainly not during an
autumn evening. The constellation Sagittarius the archer, with its signature
teapot shape, is sinking into the southwestern horizon. By 8:00 p.m., the
handle is on top, and the spout is touching the horizon ready to pour that last
cup of tea.
Friday: Halloween is a week from tomorrow so make sure you
load up on peanut clusters, almond clusters, and open star clusters this week.
That last one will be easy (and cheap… actually free) because two of the most
prominent open star clusters in the sky are easily visible in the autumn sky.
The sideways V-shaped Hyades Cluster is two fists above due east at 10:00 p.m.
Containing over 300 stars; the Hyades cluster is about 150 light years away and
625 million years old. The Pleiades Cluster is a little more than three fists
above due east. It has three times as many stars as the Hyades Cluster and is
younger. Compared to our 5-billion-year-old Sun, the 100-million-year age of
the Pleiades is infant-like.
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.
All times are Pacific Time unless noted.
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