October’s Morning Planetary Parade and Two Meteor Showers

October 2015  :  Dave Huestis

Are you a morning person? Well, if you wish to view an absolutely beautiful grouping of planets during October you’ll need to forgo your beauty sleep and rise before the Sun.

If you begin your planetary observing adventure on October 1, the eastern sky before dawn’s early light will feature Venus (brightest), Jupiter (second brightest) and much dimmer Mars stacked above the horizon. Try observing every couple of days to see the planets shift position relative to one another. On the ninth a waning crescent Moon will join the sky scene. Each morning Jupiter and Mars will draw closer to one another, being in conjunction on the 18th. Jupiter and Venus will approach each other, coming to conjunction on the 25th. Venus will then approach Mars, and they will have a conjunction on November 2-3.

At the end of the first week in October Mercury will rise out of the Sun’s glare and will be visible in morning twilight below Venus, Jupiter and Mars. If you have difficulty locating Mercury, the waning crescent Moon will pass nearby on the morning of the 11th. Each morning it will rise higher and higher into the sky, reaching a maximum elevation above the horizon on the 14th. Mercury will then sink lower and lower each morning, soon lost to the solar glare by month’s end.

This opportunity to observe four planets will be quite rewarding. I would recommend using any camera to capture an image. If you are successful, email your images to astronomygolocal@gmail.com and I’ll try to get them posted on the Skyscrapers website.

During October there are two meteor showers of any importance. First up on the night of October 8-9 is the minor display of shooting stars called the Draconids. This shower currently only produces ten or less yellowish slow moving meteors per hour. A waning crescent Moon will be in the early morning sky, so it won’t interfere with observing. Besides, this shower of particles is best observed between sunset and midnight when the constellation Draco is highest in the northern sky.

All you have to do is find Ursa Major (the Big Dipper asterism). Draco will be above it. While the meteors will emanate from this region of the sky, scan east and west up to zenith (directly overhead). These particles are fairly slow moving, hitting our atmosphere at only 12.5 miles per second. Draco stretches between Ursa Major and Polaris, the pole star, which is the end star in Ursa Minor (Little Bear), the Little Dipper asterism handle.

The best meteor shower of the month occurs on the night of October 20-21. That’s when the Earth passes through the remnants of Halley’s Comet. The First Quarter Moon will set around midnight local time, so it will not interfere with observing about 20 or so yellow and green meteors per hour at peak between then and dawn. Orionids disintegrate in our atmosphere at around 41.6 miles per second, and they are also noted for producing fireballs that create persistent dust trains as they blaze across the sky.

The meteors appear to radiate out of the sky just above Orion’s head (hence the name of the shower) and not far from the bright red super giant star Betelgeuse, which marks his right shoulder. While Orion is an easy star pattern to identify, at 3:00 a.m. this giant constellation can be found high in the southeast sky. Maximize your meteor count by observing between midnight and dawn.

In conclusion, please remember that the local observatories are open for your viewing pleasure. Visit their respective websites for public observing schedules. Seagrave Memorial Observatory in North Scituate is open every clear Saturday night. Ladd Observatory in Providence is open every Tuesday night. Frosty Drew Observatory in Charlestown is open every clear Friday night. And don’t forget the Margaret M. Jacoby Observatory at the CCRI Knight Campus in Warwick is open every clear Wednesday night.