October 2022 Night Sky Calendar
All the bright, outer planets are now visible in the evening sky. Saturn shines nearly due south by 9 p.m. with king Jupiter a bright light in the southeast. Mars is up around 11 o’clock in the eastern sky at the start of October and rises two hours earlier by month’s end. Steadily getting brighter, it now outshines every star in the evening sky. Around 9-10 p.m. at mid-month, face south, look halfway up, and you’ll stare straight into the Great Square of Pegasus. If you then turn around and face north, you’ll spot the Big Dipper huddled near the northern horizon at its lowest point called the nadir.
This month we encounter the remains of Halley’s Comet. I’m referring to the Orionid meteor shower which reaches maximum on the morning of the 21 st . From a dark sky you’ll see about 15 meteors per hour fly from the hunter’s club directly above the bright, red star Betelgeuse. Each is a small fragment sputtered from Halley’s Comet and deposited along the comet’s orbit. Every October we cross the debris stream and slam into the particles, which flare as meteors.
As always, if you live in the Upper Midwest, keep your eyes peeled for the aurora. October is one of the best times of year to see it.
*Note: When “a.m.” follows the date, it refers to an event visible in the morning sky after midnight. All times are Central Daylight Time (CDT) unless otherwise noted.
Events:
Oct. 1-6 and again Oct. 24-31 – Look for the zodiacal light towering in the eastern sky starting about an hour before dawn during these two moon-free periods. Only visible from dark skies, it looks like a big, cone- shaped glow tapering upward from the horizon. You’re seeing comet dust − and possibly also dust from Martian dust storms – lit by the sun.
Oct. 2 – First quarter moon
Oct. 5 – Waxing gibbous moon shines to the lower left of Saturn
Oct. 7 and 8 – Waxing moon shines near Jupiter both nights, closer on the 8th .
Oct. 9 – Full Hunter’s moon rises near sunset.
Oct. 14 – Waning gibbous moon less than 3° above bright, red Mars in Taurus. Look east around 10:30 p.m. local time or later.
Oct. 17 – Last quarter moon
Oct. 20 a.m. – Waning crescent moon hovers just 5° above Regulus, the brightest star in Leo the Lion. Through a small telescope you can watch the moon cover the star Eta Leonis this morning – an event called an occultation. Click here for visibility times for your city. Remember to subtract 4 hours from the listed times for EDT; 5 hours for CDT and so on.
Oct. 21 a.m. – Peak of the annual Orionid meteor shower. Best time to watch is from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. Face south or east and look about halfway up the sky.
Orionid meteor shower, Stellarium with additions by Bob King
Oct. 22 – Venus in superior conjunction with the sun. It passes from the morning to the evening sky.
Oct. 24 a.m. – You might glimpse an exceedingly thin lunar crescent just a day before New Moon shining just 1° above the planet Mercury at dawn. The pair will appear almost due east 2-3° (two fingers held at arm’s length) above the horizon about 40-45 minutes before sunrise.
Oct. 25 – New Moon
Oct. 28 – Waxing crescent moon returns at dusk. Look low in the southwestern sky
Oct. 31 – Halloween! Watch the Pleiades star cluster rise into the eastern sky starting around 8 p.m. local time
Bob King is an amateur astronomer, author, and passionate educator. He served as a photographer and photo editor at the Duluth News Tribune for 39 years and taught at the UMD planetarium. Bob’s work had a great impact on Voyageurs National Park. To achieve International Dark Sky Park certification, the park was required to host dark sky education events. Through the Night Sky Explorer webinars, the Conservancy was able to fulfill this component and help secure the certification for Voyageurs National Park. We can’t thank Bob King enough for sharing his talents and knowledge with the Conservancy community to support dark sky preservation.