.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

 

Thursday October 1 to Thursday October 8

The Full Moon is Friday October 2. Daylight savings starts October 4. The bright planets Venus and Mars are visible in the early morning skies. Venus is below the bright star Procyon and is at its closest to the bright star Regulus. Four bright planets are (just) visible in evening sky. While brightening Mars is rising well before midnight, Jupiter and Saturn still dominate the evening sky. On the 3rd the Moon is near Mars. On the 7th Mars is at it closest to Earth ahead of opposition. Mercury is high in the evening twilight.

The Full Moon is Friday October 2. The Moon is at apogee, when it is furthest from the Earth on the 4th.

Evening sky at 19:19 ACST (60 minutes after sunset) on Saturday, October 3 facing west as seen from Adelaide. Mercury is easily seen above the Western horizon in the late twilight. Mercury is high in the evening twilight.


 

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset), click to embiggen.

 

Whole sky at 19:46 ACST  (90 minutes after sunset), on Saturday, October 3 as seen from Adelaide.

Four bright planets are visible stretching west to east. Mercury Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.  The Moon is jus below Mars. The insets show the telescopic views of Jupiter and Saturn at the same magnification at this time. 

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

Evening sky at 21:00 ACST  on  Saturday, October 3 facing east as seen from Adelaide. Mars is above the eastern horizon just above the Moon. The variable start Mira is visible to the unaided eye now, should be at its predicted maximum brightness.


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 3 showing the north-eastern sky as seen from Adelaide at 4:56 am ACST (60 minutes before sunrise). Venus is at it's closest to the bright star Regulus in Leo. The pair will be practically on top of each other.

The top inset is the binocular view of Venus and Regulus. The lower 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.


This week four bright planets, Mercury , Jupiter, Saturn and Mars can bee (just seen at astronomical twilight, 90 minutes after sunset. Mercury and Mars will be low on the horizon.

Mercury climbs higher in the evening twilight and is at its highest this week, it will sink towards the horizon in the coming weeks.

Venus is below the bright star Procyon and is coming closer to the bright star Regulus. Venus is at it's closest to the bright star Regulus in Leo on the 3rd. The pair will be practically on top of each other.

 Mars is visible in the morning sky to the north, It is now readily visible in the late evening sky but is still best after midnight. Mars is close to the brightening variable star Mira.Mars is close to the Moon on the 3rd.
  
Jupiter can be readily seen in the early evening sky. Jupiter and Saturn stay around a hand-span apart during the week and the pair dominate the evening skies. Jupiter was at opposition, when it was biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on July the 14th, but is still an excellent sight.
 
Saturn is too is now visible in the early evening skies. Saturn was at opposition, when it was biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on July the 21st, but is 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/



Labels:


Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?