Caoimhín's Content

For this piece we will be looking at the sky for Halloween, and a little bit into November as well. The attached video is in Irish, but with English subtitles if you need them. As such, a couple of things do get lost in translation. The Irish for Halloween is “Oíche Shamhna” or Samhain Night. This is in reference to the following month, “Mí na Shamhna” or the Month of Samhain, November in English. Even though Halloween is the last night of the month of October, which is “Deireadh Fómhair”, the End of Autumn or the End of the Harvest, it is associated with the following month. November begins on Halloween, or at least seems to in Irish.

One of the first things you can see at sunset on Halloween is Venus. You do have to be fast when the Sun is setting on Halloween to see Venus, as it is very low on the sky, and, as per usual, if there is anything big in your way it will obscure Venus before it truly sets. When Venus appears as low as this in the sky, with light of the setting Sun, there won’t be much of a difference between the view you have from the city compared to the view you have from in the, out in the countryside. Venus is going to come out when it is very very close to the horizon and setting straight after the Sun. The glow of sunset, in this case, will make more of a difference than some amount of light pollution. As the sky gets darker, there are more stars to be seen, but Venus simply gets lower and more likely to get obscured. You might still be able to see Venus if you are at the coast or otherwise have a clear horizon with nothing in your way, but even with rather short trees or bushes, Venus will be gone pretty early in the night.

The planet Saturn also appears as the Sun is setting, but much further East, and it will stay with us for most of the night. Also at sunset, if you have good eyes, you may be able to see the comet C/2023 A3. The comet will be high enough in the sky to stay above the horizon even when true darkness falls, but it is very hard to see from the city. There are plenty of cities around the world that are too bright for this comet by Halloween. You at least won’t be able to see the comet with the naked eye on Halloween if you are in a city with too much light pollution. Taking a closer look at the comet, it’s magnitude 6.15, and with the atmosphere blocking a little light with the atmosphere it’s almost 7th magnitude. That’s not bright enough to shine through the light pollution created by a lot of cities, even a smaller one like Cork City. If you use a telescope or a binoculars you’ll have a better chance but, it will be still be quite difficult.

Halloween is one of the best nights to stay up late into the night. It’s common enough to stay up late on Halloween, compared to most other nights, just like Christmas or New Years Eve. Of course Halloween was an Eve in English as well, originally All Hallows Eve. Even as early as 9:30, the planet Saturn will be joined by the planet Jupiter, with the planet Mars following soon after. We are moving from the autumn into winter, as suggested by the Irish name for October, ” Deireadh Fómhair” is the End of Autumn as I mentioned. This means we will see planets and stars appearing earlier and earlier as the days get shorter. Coming up to midnight, those three planets are there to be seen, from the city with your naked eye, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The planet Uranus and Neptune will be out there as well, but they are only visible from a city if you have a big enough binoculars or telescope. Uranus will be a little bit easier to see to spot through a telescope, it’s over around the Pleaides. Uranus will be easier to see than Neptune anywhere, but Uranus is still hard, Neptune is just harder still.

Continuing on to 2 o’clock in the morning, Orion will be nice and high in the sky. Orion, or An Bodach in Irish, is easy to see if you are up a little bit into the morning. You don’t have to wait until the Sun is coming up to see it and you will be able to see parts of it as early as 9:30, as long as Jupiter is up in the sky. Across to the East is Leo the Lion, or the Hound in Irish. You will be able to see the majority of the stars in this constellation with the naked eye from the city as well, but we are coming closer to the Sun rising, which will begin to obscure fainter stars. As late as 6:30 in the morning, almost 6:40, and even in the city we can still see Various bright stars. Pollux and Castor, the Twins, the two brightest stars in Gemini the Twins, are still visible near Mars. You can still see Orion’s Belt and the majority of Orion, just under Jupiter. They will have moved higher and westward in the sky respectively. Turning around, to the East and almost directly over the Sun we have the Plough or the Big Dipper and you can still see the North Star at almost 7 o’clock from the city.

This is one of the best things about winter in Ireland, the nights are longer, for that reason you can see the stars earlier and earlier in the night, in the middle of winter you will be able to see bright things as early as 4:30 or 5 o’clock. This has an effect on our view in the mornings as well. There’s a good chance that people will be getting up at their normal time in the morning in November, say 7 o’clock if you have to travel an hour or two to get to your place of work, and Jupiter will still be there. You don’t have to wait up later or get up much earlier in the morning. There’s a good chance that that planet will be visible even the morning after Halloween, although I must admit, I know that there’s a better chance that people will be sleeping in the morning after Halloween rather than getting up at the normal time. If you are going out celebrating the traditions of Halloween, there’s a good chance that you will be tired the morning after that. Thankfully, if you are out late at night then you don’t have to wait until the morning to see Jupiter. Even if you are only out as late as 9:30 you will be able to see two planets. If you wait until midnight you will be able to see three of them. When we push into winter proper, Jupiter will be lower in the sky in the morning, but it will still be visible until much later in the morning. Any of the planets that are up will be shining out later into the morning, and for that reason they will be easier to see. You won’t have to, as I said, have to get up too early or wait, wait up too late, things will be out earlier in the night and later in the morning. This is of course due to the winter and the very long nights and very short days that we get as far North as Ireland.

Shifting our view out to the countryside, away from the light pollution may bring Uranus into view. Taking a closer look, it’s magnitude 5.56, and with the atmosphere that’s reduced to practically 6th magnitude. We certainly won’t be able to see that from cities with light pollution, but it is said that you can see it with your naked eye under good conditions. Back across to the West early in the night is the comet C/2023 A3, and at magnitude 6.16 or almost 6 and a half with the atmosphere, that comet is harder to see than Uranus. Uranus is just a little bit brighter than this comet, and for that reason, there’s a good chance that you won’t be able to see that comet it with your naked eye even if you are out in the countryside. You would need good eyes and truly pristine conditions.

There is a useful feature in Stellarium for checking if these very faint object are visible. In the real sky you won’t have the names of the planets and the comets labeled in the sky. This does make it obvious where things are, but it can sometimes be hard to tell which dot is actually being labeled. At the moment this isn’t too hard in the case of Uranus, there’s a sort of empty space around it without many visible stars. Even without the labels, Saturn is nice and bright, very easy to see, and the for Jupiter. Brighter planets can stand out even against a dark sky filled with stars, Jupiter in particular is brighter than any star. However, looking for the comet with no labels to help, even if you know roughly where it should be, there are a lot of stars in the same area of a similar brightness. It’s hard, especially with your naked eye, to ascertain which spot is the comet and at this time, when we are looking at the night on Halloween, this comet won’t have a big tail. Without the tail being visible to the naked eye, it’s very hard to confirm what exactly you are looking at.

The useful feature of Stellarium is the ability to remove all the stars. With only the planets, comets and other minor bodies left, it’s a lot easier to double check if the dot is visible. Without any of the stars it’s a lot easier to pick it out the comet, just on the edge of visibility. If you are using a binoculars or something like that to zoom in on the comet, then you can see the tail. However, it will be after getting very short and it won’t be particularly bright. It’s already getting much fainter and that tail is going to stop completely a few days into November.

As we push into the month of November itself, especially when that tail is in front of all of those colours that are part of the Milky Way, it may blend in with the background glow. It will also be quite low in the sky, getting closer to sunset as we move further into the month. We have to go later in the night for the sky to be sufficiently dark, but that also put’s the comet lower in the sky. Furthermore, the Moon is going to approach full, and that’s another source of light to obscure both the comet and the Milky Way. With the stars back in the sky and coming back to Halloween, we’re back to a sky with a slightly better view of the comet. There are multiple planets to be seen, even from the city and if you are up late at night to celebrate Halloween anyway, there’s a fabulous night sky to be seen, especially if you are out in the countryside.

Good luck to you if you are trying to see this sky out in the countryside at this time of the year, and if you do get the chance to see this sky on Halloween I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. If you enjoyed this piece about that upcoming sky, do make sure you press the button that says you liked it. If you are happy to do so you can also subscribe to this website and my YouTube channel. Hopefully, I’ll see you back here next time.