Star Calendar
October 2016
Star Calendar Planets:
Moon is New on the 1st for those in “Greenwich” and zones east – but it is still Sept 30th here. Those who do not mind being up after midnight will have a chance to see an occultation of Aldebaran on the night of 18-19th in the ESE. The bright limb should blot out Aldebaran around 12:45 (I do not have exact times!) and the dark limb should reveal just over an hour later.
Mercury shines with ascending Jupiter on the morning of the 11th, then falls back from his recent morning apparition and moves in direct motion behind the Sun on the 27th.
Venus is just under 15 degrees above the horizon at sunset all month and gradually brightens as she cruises towards Antares and Saturn – arriving between the two on the evening of the 27th.
Sun performs part of its strange semiannual schizo-peregrination on the 30th when much of Europe falls back from Summer Time to Standard Time just before Halloween. In the U.S. the Sun waits to confuse us until just before Election Day.
Mars passes through the steam (Milky Way) of the Teapot (Sagittarius) this month, SSW each evening as darkness settles in.
Jupiter appears next to Mercury (pretty low) on the morning of the 11th and is the brighter of the pair. He will gradually be higher thereafter and will be the brightest object in the eastern morning sky for a while. He is of equal brilliance to Sirius, seen in the south.
Saturn begins the month above Antares and begins direct motion into Ophiucus in earnest. The Moon stands above the pair on the 6th.
Star Calendar Days:
1 Sunrise/sunset in Spring Valley at 6:53/18:37 (11h43m daylight)
2 Sighting of the Moon (WSW, to right of Venus at 6:15PM) begins
the years 5777 A.M. and 1438 A.H.; Hebrew and Muslim respectively
3 Moon above Venus, WSW around 6:15PM
5 Moon to right of Saturn, SW at 7:PM
6 Mars crosses top of the bow of the Archer, SSW at 7:15PM
8 Moon above Mars, SSW at 7:PM
Draconid meteors?
11 Mercury (left) and Jupiter shine together 5:15 in East
15-16 Full Hunter’s Moon at midnight (12:23) AND perigee
17 Orionid meteors may peak early – but Moon will frustrate
19 Moon occults Aldebaran after midnight – sometime between 12:30 to 1:30AM
21 Typical peak for Orionids (residue from Halley’s Comet tail
27 Mercury crosses behind Sun (superior conjunction)
Venus stands between Antares and Saturn low in SW at 5:45PM
28 Moon beside Jupiter in east at 5:AM
29 Mars is nearest to the Sun for its year
30 Europe falls back to Standard Time at 2:AM
New Moon at 1:38PM
31 Sunrise/set in Spring Valley at 7:27/17:52 EST (11h15m daylight)
All Saint’s Eve will be DARK this year
