October is an observer's heaven!

Oct 15, 2004

My favorite time of the year?  You guessed it…right now!

October features a perfect opportunity to catch the widest majority of everyone’s favorite objects.  Early in the evening, when the daylight gives way to longer nights, the summer Milky Way is straight overhead, showing its splendor with a plethora of nebulae and star clusters from Cygnus down to Sagittarius.  Around midnight, the Milky Way begins to twist overhead, pivoting on its Cassiopeia axis to allow the winter Milky Way to take prominence.  At first, Perseus and the great square of Pegasus are on display, but they slowly give way to Orion, Auriga, Gemini, and Canis Major.  The rise of the Pleiades at this time signals that all is well in the heavens!  By late in the morning, Orion is perfectly positioned across the sky’s meridian.

Some of my favorites during this time? How about the Andromeda Galaxy, M31, at the zenith?  Does that sound good?  Or perhaps M33, the Pinwheel Galaxy?

Other favorites have to be the “ET” cluster, NGC 457, and the excellent open cluster, NGC 7789, in Cassiopeia; the California Nebula, NGC 1499, in Perseus; the Crab Nebula, M1, in Taurus; the great M42 nebula, the Running man, and the Flame in Orion; M44, the Beehive Cluster, in Cancer; and M35 in Gemini.

Make sure to stay up late for Saturn, making it’s return to prominence in the night sky…and Venus, the morning star, as well. But perhaps my favorite object during this time follows the sky right behind the bright star Fomalhaut in the southern sky.  This would be the little known, yet awesome galaxy, NGC 253 in Sculptor.  Known as the “Great Sculptor Galaxy,” this object is a full 30 arc minutes long (about the width of our full moon) and it plenty wide enough to see the detail in its spiral structure.  What is so wonderful about this galaxy is that its brightness is widely scattered across its entire surface, allowing for easily caught details over the entire disk.  For some people, the structure is reminiscent of the blades of a food processor!

To make this month even better is the last total Lunar eclipse until 2007.  Be sure to find a good, unobstructed view on October 27th as the moon turns a bloody red hue because of the earth’s shadow falling over the moon’s surface.