What's new In October: The global break is the culmination

October is still the first full month for us in the northern hemisphere. As you watch the transformation of the landscape through the emergence of the flaming foliage of New England, know that the sky is slowly changing, letting us know that winter is not far.

The winter hexagon is now starting to climb before 9pm. and this entire group of the brightest stars of the winter sky will have cleared the horizon around midnight by the end of this month, letting us see a window in the sky, revealing bright winter constellations that predict what will look like our sky throughout the next season. You can also see this same winter hex in August, but you should see it at 4 o'clock in the morning.

Among the highlights of this month, let's mention the dissolution of the great planetary range of the four brightest planets of our night sky during most of the summer, since a very brilliant Mars joined the other three at the end of July . We are going to lose Venus during the first week of this month, but we will find it in our early morning by the end of the month. As usual, there will be several good conjunctions, but there will also be another potentially bright comet and two meteor showers.

The other three bright planets will remain a little longer, but the next two, Jupiter and Saturn, will sink under the western horizon before midnight as the Earth sinks deeper. Jupiter in Libra will settle just an hour after sunset at the end of the month. Then Saturn in Sagittarius will be fixed at 9 pm, or three hours after sunset, at the end of the month.

I remember very well seeing the seven largest moons of Saturn through a large 18-inch telescope from the top of Mt. Not long ago, Cadillac was still completely dark and before the masses joined us at the top to admire the marvelous view of the Milky Way, the great planetary range and dozens of other inhabitants of the night sky. These moons range from Titan 3000 miles in diameter, larger than Mercury and twice as large as Pluto, to Mimas 250 miles in diameter.

Each of these small points in orbit clustered in the telescope were actually extremely different and unique extraterrestrial worlds, at one billion kilometers, or about 84 minutes at the speed of light. Iapetus is half-white and half-dark, Mimas has a huge crater one-third the size of the moon, and the strangest and potentially the most exciting of the group, since it has life well on or under its surface , is Enceladus.

A dozen giant feathers of water vapor and ice were discovered by the Cassini mission from its south pole before crashing onto Saturn last September. The signature of complex organic molecules was found in these plumes and methane was found on its surface. Its salty ocean below the surface could be filled with microscopic life, just 84 minutes at the speed of light.

Mars hangs out the longest because it is the easternmost planet of this superb formation. It will again be twice as dark at the end of this month, as the Earth moves forward in our faster orbit around the sun. But it is still much brighter than usual and you can still see beautiful features on its surface thanks to a good telescope.

Look for a crescent moon crescent above Jupiter on the 11th and near Saturn on the 14th. Then continue to watch the moon catch up with Mars in the middle of the triangle that marks Capricorn in the night of the 17th.

The comet featured this month will be 38P / Stephan-Oterma. Last month, it was Giacobini-Zinner in Auriga and the previous month of PanSTARRS in Cassiopeia. 38P was discovered in France in 1867 and rediscovered by Liisi Oterma in Finland in 1942. Oterma was the first woman to receive a doctorate in astronomy in Finland. You can see his comet in Orion just above and to the left of his most famous star, the red supergiant named Betelgeuse. You will need a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope to see it, because it is expected to reach about 10 times the magnitude, 40 times less than what could be seen at the naked eye. In orbit around the sun every 38 years, it is a comet of rather short period. Halley's comet orbits every 76 years and will not reappear until 2062.

The first meteor shower this month is December 8th. This shower usually does not produce much more than the background rate of about fifty meteors per hour, but it could be much better this year since his parent comet, Giacobini-Zinner, has just reached perihelion and perigee the month. latest. There will be no moon to interfere, so look north into the constellation Draco the Dragon to see these meteors.

Next, the next shower, which is much more famous than the Draconides, are the Orionids that peak on the 21st. Caused by Halley's comet, you can expect 20 meteors per hour. The moon will thicken, just three days before the end, so it will interfere with this shower until 3:30. Meteor showers are generally much better after midnight. Look towards the constellation Orion in the sky at this time of morning. You will see tiny pieces of Halley's comet burning in our atmosphere at an altitude of 70 km as we follow its debris path at a speed of 100,000 km / h. On May 4th, we will also cross the Halley's Comet Trail, also known as Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower. It's the only comet that creates two meteor showers for us each year.

STRONG POINTS OF OCTOBER

October 1: The 40-inch refractor of the Yerkes Observatory on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin was inaugurated that day in 1897. Designed by George Ellery Hale, it was the largest telescope to the world so far. in the world.

October 2: The last quarter moon is at 5:47

October 4: The thin crescent moon and the Beehive star group ride together in the eastern sky before sunrise. That day, in 1957, the Soviet Union sent the first satellite ever built, Sputnik 1, into space, thus starting the race for space.

October 5: Neil DeGrasse Tyson was born in 1958.

October 7: Niels Bohr was born that day in 1885. He was one of the pioneers of the quantum revolution that makes most of the modern technology we use every day.

October 8: the new moon is at 11:48 pm Draconid Meteor rain peaks.

October 9: Kepler's supernova at Ophiuchus was discovered on this day in 1604.

October 10-16: Look to the east before dawn and you will see the subtle glow of the zodiacal light. I saw it over the ocean at Acadia National Park a few weeks ago.

October 21: The meteor shower Orionid reaches its peak this morning.

October 24: The full moon is at 12:46 This is also known as the hunter's moon.

October 26: Watch for the Gibbous Moon in the Taurus' group of stars Hyades all night long.

October 31: The moon of the last quarter is at 12:41 In 2005, the Hubble Space Telescope discovered the second and third moons of Pluto, Nix and Hydra.

Bernie Reim of Wells is co-director of the Northern New England Astronomy Society

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