October 15 – 28, 2018
Mount Washington — A waxing crescent moon appears to the upper left of planet Saturn in the south-southwest as darkness gathers tonight, the 15th. On the 16th, a half moon (first quarter) is suspended further left of Saturn, approaching red Mars, the most riveting point of light in the sky. By the 19th, a waxing gibbous (larger than half) moon arrives to the left of Mars. Pause to notice a bright, bluish-white star below the moon. It is Fomalhaut, a not-too-distant Sun, relatively speaking, that appears in our evening sky around the autumn equinox. Follow it as it travels low to the southern horizon into January. Fomalhaut marks the mouth of the Southern Fish: it stands out as the constellation’s sole prominent star.
About a month after Fomalhaut heralds the beginning of autumn, winter’s nighttime constellations begin to rise above the eastern horizon before midnight. Orion the Hunter, the most recognizable of them all, clears the horizon close to 11:40 p.m. on the 15th and 10:40 p.m. on the 28th.
The Orionid meteor shower, predicted to peak before dawn on Sunday the 21st, is active through November 7. At peak, in a dark location under a moonless sky, a maximum of 15 to 20 shooting stars per hour are predicted. A large gibbous moon sets in the west-southwest at 3:47 a.m. on the 21st, leaving two hours of optimum darkness to meteor-watch. The Orionids radiate from a point near Orion’s upraised Club, although meteors may be spotted anywhere in the sky.
Another meteor stream, the South Taurids, is active through November 20. Its radiant is to the right of Taurus the Bull, known by its triangular head to the right of Orion’s upper body. From a dark sky area at the end of October several years ago, I witnessed a slow-moving fireball with a long, green-tinted tail; it entered my field of view at about 4 a.m. This is a sighting typical of South Taurids.
The Full Hunter’s Moon rises in the east at 6:27 p.m. on the 24th. Moonset in the west is at 8:01 a.m. on the 25th.
Resources
https://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/orion
http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/south-taurid-meteors-to-peak-in-october
