VERMILLION SKIES

The moon against the Pleiades on the 7th.

Dawn on the 10th.

The Orionids around the 21st.

It’s the first Wednesday in October so here we have some highlights, and there are some this month.

Tonight In the early evening an 85% illuminated waning gibbous will be seen to pass below the Pleiades Cluster, low in the east-north eastern sky, and easy to spot for once.

On Friday morning, the three planets, Venus, Saturn ad Mercury lie close together in the early morning sky. By the 16th, they have separated somewhat bur are joined by the waning crescent Moon. If clear, this should make a wonderful skyscape, but alas to early for me, but perfect for Keri who’ll be skipping to week with a twinkle in his eye as they rise above the eastern dawn horizon.

In October we have another big meteor show, for the clouds to obscure like they did in August. It is worth looking out for them for a week around the 21st as the shower is long lived. They will best be seen in the hours before dawn when Orion is high in the southern sky. But more about that next week.

Jupiter, now lying in Capricorn, will dominate the southern sky all night, in the south east at twilight and setting about 1.

Saturn reappeared in the pre-dawn sky last week and will be best seen at months end when, at magnitude +1.1, it will rise at about 4am, three hours before the Sun.
Mercury reaches western elongation (when it was at its greatest angular distance from the Sun) before dawn yesterday. It was Mercury's most favorable dawn apparition this year but it’s good for a while yet, so as the Sun rises, Mercury will be 15 degrees above the horizon - in company with Venus and Saturn. See the blog.

Mars is becoming more prominent in the morning sky rising by half 11 in the middle of the month. It starts the month in Gemini but moves into Cancer on the 12th October. It will be due south, so highest in the sky at 06:30 am in mid month. We will have to wait a month or so until it will be seen more easily as the nights get longer and it rises earlier. The Earth will, soon be overtaking Mars "on the inside track" so we will come closer to it and its angular size will increase so allowing more features on the surface to be seen.

Venus is now drawing closer to the Sun and can be seen low in the east rising a couple of hours before sunrise. It will be close to the thin crescent Moon on the 16th October. It is now on the far side of the Sun from us so it’s getting pretty small. An interesting fact about its brightness is that it stays pretty constant for most of the time even though the apparent phase changes greatly. When the phase is thin, Venus is nearer to us, when near full much further away so it’s angular size is far less. As a result, the effective reflecting area of Venus as seen from Earth remains pretty constant.

And if the family silver gone AWOL don’t be to harsh on Barbara, it seems she’s a post modernist Robin Hood, and all her ill gotten gains go to a worthy cause, a home for bewildered cat burglars in Manly Gusset Staffordshire, and she’s patron as well.

And that’s was your night’s sky for the week ending on 97th anniversary of the opening of the Helsinki Stock Exchange.