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Monday, October 26, 2020

 

Thursday October 29 to Thursday November 5

The Full Moon is Sunday November 1 (Saturday October 31 in WA), this is an apogee (mini) Moon and a Blue Moon in WA. The bright planets Venus and Mars are visible in the early morning skies.  Three bright planets are dominate the evening sky. Mars is past opposition but is still making the sky stunning along with  Jupiter and Saturn. On the 29th and 30th the Moon is close to Mars.

The Full Moon is Sunday November 1 (Saturday October 31 in WA), this is an apogee (mini) Moon and a Blue Moon in WA .  

Evening sky at 21:18 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset) on Saturday, October 31 facing west as seen from Adelaide. The pair of Jupiter and Saturn are above the north-west horizon.  

 

The insets show the telescopic views of Jupiter and Saturn at the same magnification at this time.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset), click to embiggen.

 

Whole sky at 21:18 ACDST  (90 minutes after sunset), on Saturday, October 31 as seen from Adelaide.

Three bright planets are visible stretching west to east. Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. The Moon leaves the lineup later this week. 

 Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset). click to embiggen.

Evening sky at 21:15 ACDST  on  Thursday, October 29 facing east as seen from Adelaide. Mars is above the north-eastern horizon just below the Moon. Mars is past opposition, but is still excellent. more details here.

The variable start Mira is still visible to the unaided eye but may b difficult to see with the waxing moonlight.

The inset shows the telescopic view of Mars at this time. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time, click to embiggen.
Morning sky on Saturday, October 31 showing the north-eastern sky as seen from Adelaide at 5:16 am ACDST (60 minutes before sunrise). Venus is getting lower to the horizon.

The inset is the telescopic view of Venus at this time.

 
 
Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise), click to embiggen.
 
Morning sky as seen from Adelaide facing north at 1:19 am ACDST on November, elsewhere in Australia will see similar views at the equivalent local time.

The is a apogee full Moon, that is a full Moon that occurs when furthest from the Earth. A "mini Moon if you will. 

This is in contrast to the Perigee "super" Full Moon April 08. If you have a good memory you will see that this full Moon is smaller than the April one (although not by much to the unaided eye, but it will be clear in binoculars and telescopes). 

Apogee actually occurs at 5:17 ACDST on the 31st. For WA, where Full Moon occurs on the 31st at 23:00 AWST their "mini Moon" occurs at the same time as the blue moon (the second full Moon in a month). Every one else has to wait until the end of November for their blue Moon.

 
This week three bright planets,  Jupiter, Saturn and Mars can be  seen at astronomical twilight, 90 minutes after sunset. Mars reasonably high above the horizon and bright red Mars is unmistakable. This week the waxing Moon leaves the line-up after the weekend

Mercury is lost in the twilight..

Venus is still readily visible low above the horizon in the morning.

 Mars is visible in the morning sky to the north-west, It is now readily visible in the evening sky. Mars is close to the variable star Mira, which is still reasonably bright. Mars was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on October the 14th, but is still worthwhile observing. Observing details and more at the Mars Opposition site.
  
Jupiter can be readily seen in the early evening sky. Jupiter and Saturn start around a hand-span apart at the beginning of the week but slowly draw closer. The pair are prominent in the evening skies along with Mars. Jupiter is setting around 1:30 am local time.
 
 Saturn too is visible in the early evening skies and is also still an excellent sight. 
 
Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.




Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/

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