Current Night Sky: October 2019

The Moon & Planets: 
Moon and Saturn

The Moon and Saturn make a conspicuous approach to each other on October 5. Here, the distance between their disks is only about ¾ of a degree, or just 1.5 lunar diameters. As seen from southern South America, the Moon actually occults – or covers up – the planet. The oval feature depicted around Saturn represents not the rings, but the orbit of Saturn’s largest moon – Titan – around the planet (October 5, 2019; 3 pm EDT).

Orionid meteors

The Orionid meteors can be visible from early October to early November, but they peak on October 22. Like most showers, they reach maximum activity between midnight and dawn. This year, unfortunately, they have to share the sky with the Last Quarter Moon, whose light will be enough to drown out the fainter meteors; the observable rate might drop to half of its typical value of 20 meteors per hour. These meteors – known to be debris from a prior passage of Halley's Comet - can appear anywhere in the sky, but tracing their trails back leads to their "radiant" in Orion. (October 22, 1:30 am EDT)

Uranus

Uranus reaches opposition on October 28. It is then opposite to the Sun in our sky, so rises at sunset, stays up all night, and sets at sunrise. It is at its closest to Earth (1.75 billion miles), its brightest (magnitude 5.7 – theoretically visible to the naked eye), and presents its largest angular diameter (3.74 arc-seconds). So far, 27 moons have been discovered orbiting Uranus; the above diagram shows the orbits of the five largest (October 28, 2019; 4:00 am EDT).

Evening Planets (after sunset): 
  • Venus, WSW
  • Mercury, SW
  • Jupiter, SW
  • Saturn, S
  • Neptune, ESE
  • Uranus, ENE
Morning Planets (before sunrise): 
  • Uranus, SW
  • Mars, ESE
Comets: 

There are no comets brighter than magnitude 8 currently visible.

Meteors: 

The Orionid meteors peak on October 21/22. Unfortunately, that is less than a day after the Last Quarter Moon, and the Moon's glow will be enough to drown out the fainter meteors. You might find that you see only half the usual number of 20 meteors per hour.

Phases of the Moon: 
First Quarter Moon October 5 12:47 pm EDT
Full Moon October 13 5:08 pm EDT
Last Quarter Moon October 21 8:39 pm EDT
New Moon October 27 11:38 pm EDT

Text, graphics, and animations by John Sheff. Graphics courtesy of Starry Night(©) Pro Plus 7 / Imaginova(©) Corp. Starry Night images are used with permission from Imaginova Corp. Starry Night is a registered trademark of Imaginova Corp. Star charts generated by Starry Night Pro Plus 7 © Imaginova Corp. All rights reserved. www.StarryNight.com