Skywatch Line for Friday, October 25, through Sunday, October 27, written by Sam Salem
This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Friday, October 25, through Sunday, October 27, written by Sam Salem.
On Friday, Sun rises at 7:21am and sets at 5:57pm; Moon rises at 12:18am and sets at 3:22pm.
Before dawn on Friday, the waning crescent Moon will move close to the faint Beehive star cluster. In a dark sky, the Beehive is an easy target with binoculars. Also nearby will be the twin stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux. They’ll rise around midnight and be visible through dawn.
On the Saturday and Sunday mornings, the waning crescent Moon will float near the star Regulus, the brightest star in Leo the Lion. Look for them a few hours before dawn.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is still in good evening view high in the west for Northern Hemisphere skywatchers, though it’s both fading and shrinking as it flies away from the Sun and Earth. Once the Moon departed the scene, the return of dark skies revivified the comet.
On Friday, Venus is in conjunction with orange Antares low in twilight. Venus is 100 times brighter than Antares. Look for the tiny orange point 3° to Venus’s lower left. Binoculars will help you spot it through the twilight and the thick air near the horizon.
Venus, magnitude –4.0, gleams low in the southwest as evening twilight fades. It continues to set around twilight’s end.
Mars, magnitude +0.2 in eastern Gemini, rises around 11 or midnight. It shows best, very high in the south-southeast, in the hour before dawn. It’s 33° east along the ecliptic from bright Jupiter. Mars in a telescope is still a small 8½ arcseconds wide.
Jupiter, magnitude –2.6 near the horn-tip stars of Taurus, rises in the east-northeast around 9 p.m. It’s highest in the hours before dawn. Jupiter is now a nice 45 arcseconds wide in a telescope.
Saturn, magnitude +0.7 in Aquarius, is well up in the southeast as the stars come out. Fomalhaut sits two fists to its lower right. Saturn is highest in the south by about 10 p.m.
Spot bright Altair high in the southwest soon after dark. Brighter Vega is far to its right. Above Altair lurk two distinctive little constellations. Delphinus, the Dolphin, is hardly more than a fist at arm’s length to Altair’s upper left. Smaller, fainter constellation Sagitta, the Arrow, sits slightly less far to Altair’s upper right. Use binoculars.
Draw a line from Altair to the right to Vega, very high in the west. Continue the line onward by half as far, and you hit the Lozenge, the pointy-nosed head of Draco, the Dragon. The Dragon’s brightest star is orange Eltanin, the tip of the Dragon’s nose. It’s always pointing toward Vega.