What's in the Sky — October 2022

Darkness is early now in the northern hemisphere. This allows plenty of hours for backyard astronomy and journeys for dark sky overnights. Fall constellations take center stage, with the Summer Milky Way past the meridian and dropping toward the western horizon by mid-evening. After the spectacular bright stars along our galactic arm, the sky may seem dull, but that changes when we magnify our view using even small telescopes and/or binoculars.

The Moon is a great evening target for the first week of the month, reaching full on the 9th and heading us toward an increasing dark sky cycle for the following weeks. Jupiter too is an excellent target over the month, although now that it is past opposition its size is decreasing. Saturn is heading toward sunset, so grab views while you can. And Mars is now rising earlier in the evening, beginning to grow in apparent size as it heads toward early December opposition.

Draconids Meteor Shower
The annual Draconid meteor shower should be viewable on October 8. While the Draconid isn't usually the strongest of meteor showers, it is known to have spectacular outbursts. Look towards the constellation Draco for your best chance to catch a glimpse of a Draconid meteor.

Orionids Meteor Shower
As Orion rises on October 21st around midnight, you can feast your eyes on the Orionid meteor shower. The shower will be active from October 2nd to November 7th.

The Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253)
Around midnight local time on October 3rd, the Sculptor galaxy (NGC 253) will be well positioned for viewing as it will be at the highest point in the sky. Cataloged as both H V.1 and Bennett 4, this 7th magnitude beauty is also known as Caldwell 65, and due to both its brightness and oblique angle is often called the "Silver Dollar Galaxy."

A Grand Galaxy
Located in the tiny constellation of Triangulum and just opposite the star Beta Andromeda is the splendid galaxy M33. While the galaxy is visible in binoculars with 50mm or larger lenses from a dark sky site, a telescope at low power will provide the best views. M33 has very low surface brightness, so look when the Moon is down and from the darkest sky site you can find!

Fabulous Fall Star Clusters
Nestled between constellations Aries and Taurus is the famous "open" star cluster M45, also known as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. The Pleiades cluster is an excellent target for binoculars, since telescopes are usually too powerful to provide a view of the entire cluster in one field-of-view.

About a hand's width southeast of the Pleiades is an association of brighter stars called the Hyades, which covers about 5° of the sky with stars laid out in the shape of a "V," pointing west and slightly south. Since it covers such a wide swath of sky, the Hyades is another great object to explore with big binoculars.

Low in the northeast skies of October, pick out the constellation Auriga; then using a star chart, see if you can pick out the three star clusters Auriga hosts — M36, M37 and M38 — all in a row. While these clusters are all visible with a telescope, you can also explore them with 50mm or larger binoculars from a dark sky site.

More Deep Sky Treats in October
In early October, catch your last glimpse of the year of the galactic center in the constellation Sagittarius, low in the southwestern sky, where you can track down four great emission nebulas — M8, the Lagoon; M20, the Trifid; M17 the Omega; and M16, the Eagle.

Two great planetary nebulas are still well-placed in October skies — M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra; and M27, the Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula.

Look for interesting galaxy NGC 7331 in the northwestern section of Pegasus. With a 12" or larger aperture telescope and good seeing conditions, you may be able to tease out the galaxy's faint spiral arms.

New Moon
This month's new Moon is October 25th, so your best chances for evening dark sky targets will run from 3rd Quarter on the 17th through the 27th. Make your plans so you do not miss out!

October Challenge Object
With U.S. Halloween at the end of the month, what better challenge object than one known colloquially as The Skull Nebula? Catalogued as NGC 246, it is easy to locate, but will take darker skies and as it is a planetary nebula, filters such as an Orion Ultrablock filter will help to reveal it in fine detail. Located above easy to find Beta Ceti, and just below the line between Ceti's Eta and Epsilon, you can find it in any size telescope, but larger instruments in darker skies will be most pleasing. Show your children, this trick will be a real seasonal treat!

All objects described above can easily be seen with the suggested equipment from a dark sky site, a viewing location some distance away from city lights where light pollution and when bright moonlight does not overpower the stars.