S M October 2001 F S

1 2 3 4 5 6

Venus reaches perihelion

Sundials are Full Moon (107,472,823 km from
10 minutes fast. (9:49 a.m. EDT). the Sun).

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Mars reaches perihelion

Last-quarter Moon (206,656,460 km from
(12:20 a.m. EDT). the Sun).

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Zodiacal light
can be seen in
Moon at perigee, 23h UT east before dawn for
(distance: 361,860 km; next two weeks New Moon Sundials are
diameter: 33 01). (Northern Hemisphere). (3:23 p.m. EDT). 15 minutes fast.

FROM TOP LEFT: JOHN MCNEAL, S&T: EDWIN L. AGUIRRE, P K CHEN

21 22 23 24 25 26 27
First-quarter
Moon (10:58 Venus and
p.m. EDT). Mercury are
Orionid meteor shower Moon occults Mars Moon at apogee, 20h UT less than 1 apart
peaks this morning; this evening for parts (distance 404,935 km; for 11 days beginning
see page 108. of Africa. diameter 29 31). this morning.

28 29 30 31
Shadows of Io and
Ganymede transit Mercury and
Jupiter together Venus are 35
starting at 22:33 UT. apart at 22h UT.
Daylight saving time Mercury reaches great-
ends (N. America, est elongation, 19 west
Europe). of the Sun.

The Sun, Moon, and Planets in October

M
ars shines bright in the est star in the handle of the Sagittarius Finder charts for the three dim outer-
south at dusk and sets near Teapot. All the while, the red planet is most planets can be found on pages 104
evenings end throughout Oc- being left behind by Earth and fades dur- and 105 of the April issue. Pluto really
tober. Saturn gradually rises earlier in the ing the month from about 0.4 to 0.0 in sinks too low too early in the evening to
hours before midnight, and Jupiter makes magnitude. Its apparent diameter falls be tracked down this month, but Nep-
its appearance about two hours below 10, about the lower tune and Uranus are a different story.
after Saturn. Dont miss an By Fred Schaaf limit for useful observations of They are highest in the south, in Capri-
amazingly long and lovely close dance its disk. Mars reaches perihelion (closest cornus, not long after nightfall, and this
that begins in the final week or so of Oc- to the Sun in space) on October 12th, a month they end their westward (retro-
tober, when Venus, rising just before time when surface-veiling dust storms grade) motion. Both planets can be
morning twilight, is joined by Mercury. are likely again. This month our best shot glimpsed with very modest optical aid.
As October starts, Mars is racing away at getting fairly steady views of Martian Saturn rises almost two hours after the
from a close conjunction with Sigma () surface markings occurs as night falls, end of evening twilight as October opens
Sagittarii (also called Nunki), the bright- when the planet is highest in the south. but only a few minutes after that last

The Moon diagrams in the calendar show the lunar phase in the evening when waxing or full, and in the early-morning hours of the date when
waning. Celestial north is up, and a tick indicates the Moons north pole. The red dot shows where the Moons limb is tipped into best view by li-
bration; the dots size indicates by how much. The maximum libration is 7.4 on October 18th; the minimum is 5.8 on the 24th. Moon diagrams
adapted by Guy Ottewell from his Astronomical Calendar 2001. Jean Meeus predicted the conjunctions of stars with planets.

2001 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Sky & Telescope October 2001 95
guide to the evening sky
Dawn, Oct 13 15 Dusk, Oct 22 23 Dawn, Oct 30
60 minutes before sunrise Moon 60 minutes after sunset 40 minutes before sunrise
Oct 13
Mars

10
Moon
Oct 23
Moon
Oct 22
Denebola
Moon Vir
Oct 14 T e a p o t
o f
S A G I T T A R I U S
Mercury
Venus Venus

Moon
Oct 15 Spica

E S SSW ESE

glow when the month ends. Saturn is
now starting its own retrograde creep,
moving very slowly westward in relation
to the background stars. It brightens in
negative magnitude and dramatically out-
shines Aldebaran and the Hyades, which
twinkle just a binoculars field away.
For steady images of Saturn and its
now devastatingly beautiful rings, wait
until the planet is very high in the south-
southwest near dawn.
Jupiter jumps up into the sky a little
more than two hours after Saturn during
October, while brightening to magnitude
2.4 and growing to more than 40 wide.
It is slowing to almost stationary in the
middle of Gemini a few degrees from
Zeta () Geminorum (Mekbuda) and
Delta () Geminorum (Wasat). On Oc-
tober 7th Jupiter reaches quadrature, 90
west of the Sun, a geometry that lets us
see the eclipses of its four big Galilean
Light-Pollution Notes: Recent Victories
moons better. Jupiter is in the south and
highest in morning twilight this month,
an opportune time to try to study the
details of its rich cloud features.
Venus rises just before the first gleam
of morning twilight throughout October
but is most exciting to see in the final
week of the month. Thats when it forms
a close and enduring pair with Mercury.
Mercury is at inferior conjunction with
the Sun on October 14th and very dim,
but it races out from the solar glare and
kindles with increasing brightness very
swiftly. By October 22nd Mercury is 15
from the Sun and about 5 below Venus;
it has also brightened more than two mag-
nitudes in four days to shine at +0.8.
What happens next is rare and mar-
velous. For 11 days, beginning October
27th, Mercury and Venus stay within 1
of each other! Remarkably, throughout
this period the two never have a true
conjunction in right ascension, where one
planet passes due north or south of the
other. They do have two conjunctions in
ecliptic longitude, however, on October
30th and November 3rd, as Belgian as-
tronomer Jean Meeus has pointed out.
And they do have two appulses (closest
approaches in the sky): 0.59 apart near
22h Universal Time on October 29th and
0.65 apart at 0h UT on November 4th.
Not for another five years will these two
worlds share another quasi-conjunction
(being within 5 of each other without a
conjunction in right ascension) and
that one will be less impressive.
Whats important this time is that
Venus and Mercury are readily visible each
clear morning throughout the entire 11-
day period. It helps that Mercury reaches
greatest elongation (19 from the Sun) on
October 29th, the fleet planets best morn-
ing apparition of the year for viewers at
midnorthern latitudes. Mercury is even
unusually bright (0.5 magnitude) at this
greatest elongation. And on the final days
of October Spica can be seen rising below

G
ood news for dark-sky activists was plentiful in the first half of 2001. Mem-
bership in the International Dark-Sky Association (www.darksky.org) sur- Venus and Mercury.
passed 7,000 and keeps growing by leaps and bounds. On May 16th the In telescopes, try seeing Venuss 1012-
U.S. television network ABC broadcast an excellent feature on the ways light pollu- wide gibbous form and Mercurys less-
tion can trigger significant biomedical problems. than-7-wide semicircle together in the
Connecticut dark-sky activist Clifford Haas now has received two letters in which same field of view.
Connecticut Senator (and recent vice-presidential candidate) Joseph Lieberman ex- The full (Harvest) Moon occurs on
presses concern about the problems of bad outdoor lighting. Meanwhile, Connecti- October 2nd. Its waning body rises near
cuts new light-pollution law, passed in June, made a big breakthrough. It mandates Saturn on October 6th and 7th, and soon
full-cutoff lights on all streets and roads not just those owned by the state (see after Jupiter on the 9th. A thin lunar cres-
page 25 of the September issue). Earlier this year Colorado also passed a statewide cent hangs far above Venus on October
light-pollution law, and other states are working to do so. 14th, then well to its lower left the next
Perhaps no victory was as sweet as the recent accord in Vermont that will protect day. After becoming new on October
the threatened mecca of telescope makers, Stellafane (see page 28 of the August 16th, the Moon thickens in the evening
issue or www.stellafane.com for details). sky until hitting first quarter not far to
the lower left of Mars on October 23rd.

96 October 2001 Sky & Telescope 2001 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
 Jupiter
Saturn
The Sun The Solar System
Date October 1st 16th 31st in October December
Right Ascension 12h29.0m 13h24.0m 14h21.1m Solstice
Declination 3 08 8 50 14 03
Diameter 3157 3205 3213 Venus Earth
Distance (a.u.) 1.001 0.997 0.993 Mercury
March September
The Moon Equinox
Sun Equinox

Full Moon Oct. 2nd 13:49 UT

Last Quarter Oct. 10th 4:20 UT Mars
New Moon Oct. 16th 19:23 UT June Uranus
First Quarter Oct. 24th 2:58 UT Solstice
Neptune

Pluto

10"

Mercury Venus Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

October 1st 16th 31st 1st 16th 31st 1st 31st 16th 16th 16th 16th 16th
h m h m h m h m h m h m h m h m h m h m h m h m
Right Ascension 13 45.0 13 06.9 13 14.4 10 56.0 12 04.7 13 13.6 18 55.9 20 20.1 7 05.8 4 54.2 21 34.5 20 33.3 16h52.6m
Declination 1446 810 534 +809 +108 609 2543 2144 +2225 +2042 1512 1839 1230
Elongation 22 Ev 4 Mo 18 Mo 26 Mo 22 Mo 18 Mo 95 Ev 85 Ev 98 Mo 128 Mo 118 Ev 103 Ev 51 Ev
Magnitude +0.7 +4.3 0.6 3.9 3.9 3.9 0.4 0.0 2.3 0.2 +5.8 +7.9 +13.9
Diameter 8.7 9.9 6.6 11.3 10.9 10.5 10.7 8.8 40.0 19.6 3.6 2.2 0.1
Illumination 31% 1% 62% 90% 93% 95% 85% 85% 99% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Distance (a.u.) 0.775 0.678 1.019 1.473 1.537 1.590 0.875 1.062 4.917 8.423 19.490 29.853 31.047

12h 10h 8h 6h 4h 2h 0h 22h Deneb 20h 18h 16h 14h

RIGHT ASCENSION Capella ANDROMEDA Vega
DECLINATION

+40 CYGNUS +40

AURIGA
Castor PERSEUS BOTES
+30 GEMINI +30
HERCULES
LEO
Pollux Saturn Oct 7 Pleiades ARIES
PEGASUS
Oct 10
+20 TA U R U S +20
Jupiter Arcturus
Oct 13 Regulus Betelgeuse Aldebaran
Full Moon Altair
+10 Oct 2 +10
Venus AQUILA VIRGO
CANCER Full Moon EC
0 Procyon LI E Q U A T O R 0
E Q U A T O R ORION Oct 31 PT
I C AQUARIUS LIBRA
Mercury OPHIUCHUS
10
CORVUS Alphard Sirius Rigel CETUS Oct 28
Neptune Pluto
20 Uranus 20
CANIS
DECLINATION

MAJOR Fomalhaut C A P R I C O ROct

N U23
S Mars
30 Oct 20 Antares 30
S A G I T TA R I U S
40 SCORPIUS 40
LOCAL TIME OF TRANSIT
10 a.m. 8 a.m. 6 a.m. 4 a.m. 2 a.m. Midnight 10 p.m. 8 p.m. 6 p.m. 4 p.m. 2 p.m.

Top right: In this view of the inner solar system, curved arrows indicate each planets movement during the month. Planet disks have south up;
ticks indicate the pole turned Earthward. Map above: The Sun and planet symbols are for mid-October; arrows show motion throughout the
month. The Moon is plotted for evening dates when it is waxing (right side illuminated) or full, and morning dates when waning (left side). Local
time of transit tells when objects cross the meridian at midmonth; transits occur an hour later on the 1st, an hour earlier at months end.

2001 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Sky & Telescope October 2001 97