October 2006

October starts with the classical planets close to the sun. That means viewing them is to be done in the dusk or dawn. Look for Jupiter in the west (southwest for northern hemisphere observers, northwest for those in the southern hemisphere) in the evening. Saturn starts the month partway up the eastern sky before sunrise. Both make fine telescope subjects. Mercury, Venus, and Mars start the month too close to the sun to see them. Viewing for Venus and Mars doesn't improve this month.

As Jupiter lowers into the sunset each evening, Mercury rises out of it but not enough to be an easy catch. Binoculars or a telescope will reveal both during the second half of the month. Jupiter will remain visible to the naked eye for most observers. Look for Mercury below it. Saturn rises earlier and earlier each morning until it is high in the sky by sunrise at the end of the month. Watch it greet the waning crescent moon around the 16th.

October is as good a month as any for a beginner to start learning the constellations. Northern hemisphere observers will find the great cross that is Cygnus high overhead toward the west as night falls. At the top of the cross (also the tail of the swan) is Deneb, a very bright star about 1800 light years away. The solar system is moving toward Deneb. At the other end of the constellation is Albireo which a telescope or binoculars will reveal is actually two stars--one gold, the other blue. Cygnus lies on a great stream of stars that is a spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Just west of Cygnus is Lyra. It is a little parallelogram with a couple stars next to it. One of them is the very bright Vega. East of Cygnus is the Great Square of Pegasus and in sufficiently dark skies you should be able to make out the zig-zag Lacerta.