Autumn Acorn

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Almanac for October-November 1997

October

1 NEW MOON, 12:51 P.M. EDT.
2 Rosh Hashanah (actually begins at sunset of October 1—date of New Moon nearest to autumn equinox)—start of Jewish year 5758.
4 St. Francis of Assisi Day; crescent Moon far to right of Venus.
5 Look in southwest about 1 hour after sunset to see Moon, Venus, and much dimmer Mars form a triangle about 7 to 8 degrees on each side (this distance is about that of a wide-field binocular views)—Venus at bottom, Moon and Mars at top (with star Antares to the left of Mars).
6 Moon about 9 degrees (a bit less than 1 width of your fist at arm's length) upper left of Mars.
8 Jupiter halts retrograde motion in Capricomus, resumes direct (eastward) motion in relation to the background stars.
9 FIRST QUARTER MOON, 8:22 A.M. EDT; Leif Eriksson Day.
10 Saturn at opposition, rising at sunset, and visible all night long—for weeks around this time, the planet is closest, brightest, and in telescopes appears its biggest; Moon to the upper right of Jupiter.
11 Yom Kippur (actually begins at sunset of October 10); Moon well to the left of Jupiter; Mars and its "rival" (the similarly orange-gold star Antares, the heart of Scorpius) closest together (about 3 1/2 degrees apart) tonight and tomorrow night they are to the left of the very brilliant Venus.
12 Venus equally far (5 degrees) from Mars and Antares.
13 Columbus Day (observed); Thanksgiving (Canada); Native Americans Day (South Dakota); Mercury at superior conjunction with Sun—technically, all of the planets are now above the horizon after sunset until November 27.
14 Venus-Mars-Antares "trio"—that is, all three celestial objects fit within a circle about 5 degrees wide (the field of view of an average pair of binoculars); Moon well to upper right of Saturn at dusk.
15 FULL MOON, 11:46 P.M. EDT—"Hunter's Moon" (the Full Moon after Harvest Moon); Moon just to the lower left of Saturn at dusk (low in east).
16 Succoth; Venus less than 2 degrees north of Antares.
17 Asteroid 4 Vesta at opposition (visible all night long—but requires binoculars and finder chart like those in Sky& Telescope magazine to locate and see).
18 Alaska Day; almost perfect line, about 5 1/2 degrees long, of Mars, Venus, and Antares (from upper left to lower right).
19 Moon hides the star Aldebaran before dawn as seen from most of the U.S.
20 Sightings of the Orionid meteors (from the south in the hours just before dawn) are hindered by bright moonlight these next few days.
21 Venus straight below Mars—less than 2 1/2 degrees from Mars now through October 29.
23 LAST QUARTER MOON, 12:48 A.M. EDT; the swallows leave San Juan Capistrano until the spring; at 5 A.M. EDT, Sun enters astrological sign Scorpio but is really still in constellation Virgo.
24 Venus and Mars almost identically close to each other from now through October 26.
25 Venus-Mars closest together tonight Oust over 2 degrees apart).
26 Daylight Saving Time ends at 2:00 A.M. local time.
30 Sun leaves Virgo, enters constellation Libra, 6 P.M. EST; Moon 23 to 20 hours before New Moon, amazingly thin crescent, possibly visible very low in east 45 minutes before sunrise.
31 Halloween (All Hallows' Eve); NEW MOON, 6:01 A.M. EST; Nevada Day.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print