{"id":2316,"date":"2021-09-21T14:42:12","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T14:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2316"},"modified":"2021-10-07T00:34:12","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T00:34:12","slug":"astrocal-october-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2316","title":{"rendered":"AstroCal – October 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0October looks to be an excellent month for planetary viewing.\u00a0 Just to make sure our lunar companion does not get short shrift, we will start this AstroCal with a little about the <\/span>Hunter\u2019s Moon <\/b>which will take place on October 20.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/b>According to the Farmers\u2019 Almanac, the convention of naming seasonal Moons in North America can be attributed to Native Americans.\u00a0 The October Moon is so called because the falling leaves and shortening days meant it was time to begin storing meat for the long winter ahead.\u00a0 When the Europeans arrived, they adopted many of the same names and added a few of their own carried with them from the old country.\u00a0 The <\/span>Full Harvest Moon <\/b>was natural for September and October as the fields were reaped and crops were gathered.\u00a0 The sight of foxes and other critters roaming the newly cleared fields gleaning the fallen grain and stalking the small animals attracted by these leftovers reinforced the idea of the Hunter\u2019s Moon.<\/span><\/p>\n

The October Full Moon is also known as the <\/span>Blood Moon <\/b>or the <\/span>Sanguine Moon <\/b>in other parts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The <\/span>Waning Crescent Moon <\/b>left over from September\u2019s lunar cycle will be visible in the east during the last hours before sunrise.\u00a0 The <\/span>New Moon<\/b> begins the October cycle on October 6, followed by the <\/span>First Quarter <\/b>on Oct 12, and the <\/span>Last Quarter <\/b>on October 28.\u00a0 Sorry, but this year there will be no Full Moon to help track those witches, goblins, and ghosts this Halloween.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Mercury<\/b> disappeared in the glare of the <\/span>Sun<\/b> in mid-September but will re-emerge in the morning sky after passing <\/span>inferior conjunction<\/b> on October 9.\u00a0 The <\/span>Winged Messenger<\/b> will brighten from a magnitude of +1.0 on October 17 to -0.7 on October 25.\u00a0 Prime viewing for Mercury 40 minutes before sunrise between the E and ESE as it reaches its greatest elongation (the farthest distance out we observe the planet from <\/span>Earth<\/b>) 18 degrees west of the Sun.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As for the Cornucopia of planets we can observe this month (sorry, had to slip in one more harvest reference), let\u2019s start with the star of the evening planets,<\/span> Venus.\u00a0 <\/b>The planet will be low to the SW horizon at the beginning of the month, the -4.3 magnitude will make it hard to miss (the lower the number, the brighter the object appears.\u00a0 The Full Moon, for example, shines at about -12.5).\u00a0 Venus will be very close to the star <\/span>Delta Scorpii <\/b>from Oct 7 – 10 and the young Crescent Moon will join the fun on October 9 about 40 minutes after sunset.\u00a0 Venus will be moving about 1 degree per day (about the width of your little finger when held at arm\u2019s length) across the background stars so you will be able to follow as it moves past the heart of <\/span>Scorpius, the Scorpion.\u00a0 <\/b>Venus will pass over the bright red star <\/span>Antares, <\/b>also known as <\/span>Alpha Scorpii<\/b> as it is the brightest star in the group, <\/span>\u00a0<\/b>around October 17.\u00a0 The redness of Antares led people to call it <\/span>The Rival of Mars<\/b> when the two similarly hued bodies were close together.\u00a0 Antares comes from \u2018rival of Ares\u2019, \u2018Ares\u2019 being the Greek form of <\/span>Mars, the Roman God of War<\/b>.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Mars is still in the constellation of <\/span>Virgo, the Virgin<\/b> at this time and the two will not be seen together this year.\u00a0 Interestingly, Scorpius is known throughout Polynesia as <\/span>The Fishhook, <\/b>yet the Hawaiian name for it (<\/span>Lehua-kona<\/span><\/i>) means \u2018southern lehua blossom\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Saturn <\/b>and <\/span>Jupiter <\/b>have been traveling in <\/span>retrograde<\/b> motion as the Earth\u2019s orbit passes them.\u00a0 Both will pause in this motion (around October 10 and 17, respectively) and then resume their normal march against the background stars.\u00a0 An hour after sunset, look to the southeast to find Jupiter located 25 degrees above the horizon in <\/span>Capricornus, the Sea Goat<\/b> (make the Texas Longhorns \u2018hook \u2018em horns\u2019 sign with your hands – 25 degrees spans pinky to thumb).\u00a0 Saturn is located near the SSE at a similar distance above the horizon.\u00a0 Jupiter\u2019s -2.6 mag will make it easy to find and the four <\/span>Galilean Moons <\/b>can be seen with binoculars or a small telescope.\u00a0 Saturn\u2019s magnitude will be +0.5 and with a small scope, the <\/span>Rings<\/b> may be visible as they are tilted 19 degrees from the edge-on view.\u00a0 The width of the rings spans about 39 seconds of arc compared to the 44 seconds for the face of Jupiter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Compiled by Ken Raisanen of WOAS-FM – information provided by <\/span>Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar<\/span><\/i>, Michigan State University.\u00a0 More information and subscription information can be found on their website at <\/span>http:\/\/abramsplanetarium.org\/<\/span><\/a>skycalendar\/ or on Twitter at <\/span>http:\/\/twitter.com\/AbramsSkyNotes<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Yearly subscriptions cost $12 and can be started anytime.<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Speaking of Halloween, nobody does spooky quite as well as Tobias Forge and Ghost…but the filters for some reason won’t let me post RATS!\u00a0 Second idea was GHOSTBUSTERS, but I got the same filter message.\u00a0 In that case, if you ever wondered what the lyrics to GB are . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0October looks to be an excellent month for planetary viewing.\u00a0 Just to make sure our lunar companion does not get short shrift, we will start this AstroCal with a little about the Hunter\u2019s Moon which will take place on October 20.\u00a0 According to the Farmers\u2019 Almanac, the convention of naming seasonal Moons in North America […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2316"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2332,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2316\/revisions\/2332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}