Caoimhín's Content

Now that we are moving into October, I need to point out some new highlights! As the Earth orbits around the Sun, our view of the stars slowly shifts. It isn’t too noticeable from one night to the next, but from month to month things noticeably shift. With planets and constellations rising earlier, we need an update from September. It’s also going to be Space Week from the 4th to the 10th of October, with astronomical events running all around the country. You can learn more at their website, spaceweek.ie.

For the larger planets, Jupiter and Saturn, they are rising earlier and getting higher in the sky earlier, making them easier and easier to see. This is also true of Orion. By mid-to-late October the famous constellation of the Hunter will be risen by midnight, and his shoulders will be visible early in the evening even earlier in the month.

For the planets closer to the Sun, things aren’t so straight-forward. Mercury already reached its Greatest Western Elongation on the 22nd of September, everyday since its been moving along in its orbit, towards the far side of the Sun. Mercury will be low next to the Sun even in early October, and vanished to the far side before the end of the month. Venus hasn’t changed too much, as it doesn’t orbit the Sun quite so fast. However, it is still closer to the Sun than we are, so it won’t move into the middle of the night with Orion, it will stay stuck to early morning time at best

As mentioned in the previous video, we will be having a Partial Lunar Eclipse at the end of October. We won’t spend to long on it in this video, but we will take a quick look and show how close it is to Jupiter in the sky during the eclipse. With a Full Moon at the end of the month, the must be a New Moon around the middle. When the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun we can’t see it at all, but that also means that there is no extra light from the Moon to block out object in the night sky.

If you live in a city or big town, then the light of the Moon isn’t the only light effecting your view. Light pollution is the light that shines into the sky making it difficult to see faint objects, it usually comes from artificial sources. It can be produced by car headlights, the light from homes, streetlights and the lights from businesses, especially spotlights shining into the sky. The more light shining up from the ground, the less you can see shining down from the sky.

In this video we take away that light pollution and show all the extra stars visible in a Dark Sky, with no light pollution. There will be some Dark Sky festivals coming up in November, but Dark Skies are worth seeking out any time of year, especially as the nights get longer. In a Dark Sky the Milky Way is clearly visible, giving us plenty more stars to see.

If you want to see galaxies other than our own, you need to look away from our galaxy. The dense collection of stars that make up the arms and core of our Milky Way can block our view of more distant objects. Here, we turn around to the North, towards the Plough or Big Dipper, to take a look at a couple of galaxies outside of our own.

We are only taking a quick look at some major features here, but as we get further into the month we’ll take a closer, more focused look at many of the topics that pop up in this brief overview. Stay tuned!