What's Up: October 20 through October 27, 2020
What’s Up This Fourth Week of October
This week’s forecast is indicating very warm temperatures with perhaps a clear night or two around Thursday. This clear night might in fact overlap with one of this week’s spectacles you won’t want to miss! The moon is still in its waxing phase and sets just a few hours after sunset. Sunset is around 6:40 PM now and it will continue to get earlier and earlier. This is the time of year when you might get sad to see the sun and light of day leave so early but the early sunset makes stargazing more accessible and amateur astronomers excited with the additional hours of nighttime.
This week brings us the peak of the Orionids meteor shower, a close meet between Jupiter, Saturn, and the moon, and the dwarf planet Ceres at a standstill.
The peak of the Orionids meteor shower this year is early morning Wednesday (between about midnight and dawn), although you might be able to spot some before or after this as the meteor shower is active between October 2nd and November 7th. The Orionids appear to be originating from near the famous Orion constellation which consists of the three “belt” stars and bright red Betelgeuse forming Orion’s right shoulder. This meteor shower will produce an estimated 10-20 meteors per hour, but these will only be visible in darker locations. These meteors come from tiny particles left behind from the famous Halley’s comet (which is set to return in the year 2061). The meteors produced by the Orionids are not as bright as the Perseids, but they are notoriously fast meteors. These sand sized particles slam into Earth’s atmosphere at around 41 miles per second! All of this energy ionizes the air that the meteor passes through and because of this a trail is left behind in the sky that may last a second or two after the meteor itself has vaporized.
A composite image of the Orionid meteor shower, with the constellation Orion, from which they appear to radiate, in the background. APOD-NASA
On Thursday the moon will pass very close to Saturn and Jupiter in our skies. These two gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, hang in the southern skies and are among the first “stars” to appear after sunset. They are so bright that they can easily be mistaken for airplanes, except they aren’t moving quickly, nor do they have blinking lights. On the 22nd, the moon will pass within 5° of both planets such that all three bodies almost form an equilateral triangle in the sky. This is an ideal time to check these celestial bodies out with the naked eye or with binoculars or a telescope.
The Moon, Jupiter and Saturn, as seen in the south on the evening of October 22.
On Friday the dwarf planet Ceres will be at a standstill as it completes its retrograde loop. Ceres can be found by first locating the moon around 8:30 PM then moving about 25° (2.5 fists at arm’s length) to the left and about 3° downwards. Ceres does not stand out too much since it shines a faint 8.5 magnitude. This dwarf planet can only be seen with the aid of binoculars or a telescope.
This week may be the last warm week of 2020. Hopefully the weather holds out for us sky enthusiasts, although, Ohio weather has the infamous reputation for throwing surprises. Sunset is very early which means you don’t need to stay up to 9:30 PM just to see the first stars! The full sky and all of its wonders are now visible about an hour after sunset, roughly 7:30 PM. Grab a lawn chair and a pair of binoculars or a telescope and explore the vastness of the cosmos. For meteor watching I suggest bringing a blanket (or something comfortable to lay on) instead of a chair to prevent neck strain. Enjoy this week’s crescent moon and dark nights.
Clear Skies!